Running From the Past
by Overobsessy
Summary: It's been six years since Kagome has seen her friends. But when she finally resurfaces in front of Inuyasha as a village priestess, what will happen when he finds out the truth of why she ran away? InuKag. Rated for language, violence, and rape.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: You people honestly think I own Inuyasha? Wow. I never thought my art was that good . . .**

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A young woman in priestess clothes made her way through the village, followed closely by a small boy. The boy, no older than five, walked very close to her, trying his best to avoid the glares of the villagers around them. The woman didn't seem to notice however, and merely continued to walk silently.

One of the villagers, finally having enough of whatever it was that was bothering him, yelled, "Begone, demon!"

As if this was their cue, all of the villagers immediately started throwing rocks at the two walking, and the boy cowered closer to the woman.

None of them made contact however, as they all hit a barrier projected by the priestess. The villagers, immediately angered, began yelling at her.

"How dare you protect that filth!"

"What kind of priestess are you!?! Protecting a demon!"

"Move out of the way, wench!"

"That half breed deserves to die!"

The priestess, immediately angered, sent out a mighty aura, instantly shutting all of the villagers' mouths.

"If anyone lays a hand on Jiko, you will pay dearly." With that said, the two continued on their path towards the headman's house, followed by many glares.

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"What do you want, priestess? Why have you brought this pathetic half breed filth into my village?"

With a suppressed growl, the priestess answered the headman's questions. "This 'half breed' is my son, so do not insult him."

The headman, now partially appalled, partially curious, continued, "Why have you come here, priestess?"

"I merely wish to reside in this village for a short time. If I am allowed to stay, I will serve as your village priestess. My powers are strong, and my medicines can bring back even those an inch from death."

The headman, now interested, thought for a minute. "You may stay as long as your residence is only temporary. But . . . I would like to know the name of our new priestess."

The woman bowed in thanks. "My name . . . is Kagome . . ."

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**Okay people, this is only a prologue. That is why it's short. I just wanna see how people like the idea. It's been bugging me for so long that I've decided to screw the only two at a time idea and just go for it! Review telling me whether you like it or not!**


	2. Revelation

**Disclaimer: So this one girl comes up to me and asks "Do you own Inuyasha?" After a few minutes of careful consideration, I decided to confuse her by telling her no in Japanese.**

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Growling as the sun moved into his eyes, Inuyasha slowly sat up on the tree limb he had perched himself on. A few days ago, he had found another hopeful lead in his search and had decided to try not to sleep on his way. Boy, did he pay for it.

Yawning openly, he shifted so that the sun was on his back, grumbling and closing his eyes.

It had been six years now since Kagome had left him. Six, incredibly long, painful years where he had desperately been searching for her.

At first, it had all been a matter of finding out why the hell she had run off into the wilderness of the Feudal Era without anyone to protect her. Now, it had become a matter of heartbreak. He had been so sure that she would return at _some_ point in time, but for the past six years, he hadn't seen hide or hair of her anywhere.

Another fact that haunted him was that she might be dead. After a few weeks of going into a deep depression, he finally rejected that notion unless he saw it with his own eyes.

So the only fact that remained was that she was gone and hadn't come back. For six years, nonetheless. His pride was getting the better of him at this point; he wouldn't give up until he found her, no matter how long it took.

Rolling onto his back, the half dog demon looked up at the sky, his thoughts drifting towards his goal. 'Kagome . . . why didn't you come back?'

Yawning again, he leapt down from the tree, rubbing his eye and walking through the thick forest, following a light path marked in the ground.

Truthfully, he had always loved Kagome. Always. Even though he did try and kill her, he still had loved her. Well . . . maybe not then . . . but as soon as he saw her dedication and loyalty, he had somehow, unbeknownst to him, fallen for her. Sure he had never admitted it to himself, claiming to still love Kikyo, but . . . Kikyo was gone now . . . and somehow, when she finally left the earth once again, he had felt nothing. That had clenched it for him. He _did_ love Kagome, and now he was going to find her no matter what.

The wind slightly picked up, whipping his hair into his face. Wiping it away with an annoyed growl, he picked up an interesting scent in the air. Sniffing gently at it, he detected a faint trace of demon, but the demon scent was twisting around a much, much sweeter scent. Kagome.

His eyes opening wide, he broke out into a run. Running as fast as demonly possible towards the source. Coming over the edge of a hill, he saw a small village there; Kagome's scent seemingly radiating from it.

There was no mistaking it. She was there.

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A small boy was running through the fields outside a village; his messy red hair whipping about as he ran as fast as he could. His eyes, the same color as his hair, darted nervously back behind him as he continued to run.

Suddenly, he was pushed face first onto the ground as a boy landed on top of him.

"We finally caught you, demon boy."

The boy looked up at the much older boy that stood up, almost daring him to stand up too. Timidly, he started to try to stand, but was kicked back down as the older boy's friends arrived.

"What's the matter, demon boy? Too weak to stand up?" The leader of the boys kicked him in the stomach, sending him rolling over in pain.

"I thought demons were supposed to be stronger than humans. Obviously not," said a girl as she rubbed her foot into his sore gut.

"That's because he's just a half demon!" said another boy, kicking the red-head too.

Whimpering in pain, the demon closed his eyes, trying to block out the misery they were causing him. The older children laughed as they continued to kick and mock him, enjoying his torment.

Suddenly, a low growl filled the air, immediately bringing an end to the children's laughter. Inuyasha leapt out of nowhere, growling his head off as the terrified children ran back to the village, screaming bloody murder.

Timidly, the hanyou boy stood up. "Th-Thanks . . ."

Inuyasha turned to him, smirking. "You shouldn't let those humans boss you around like that."

The boy silently turned his head to the ground, ashamed.

"Hey, what's your name anyway?"

"My name?" The boy looked back up at him with wide eyes. "My name's Jiko. What's yours?"

"I'm Inuyasha."

Slightly nervously, Jiko looked away again. "Wh-Why'd you save me?"

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow. "Can't you tell? I'm a hanyou too."

"Really?!" Jiko's eyes immediately shot back to Inuyasha.

"Really." Inuyasha suddenly picked up an odd scent coming from the boy. It was a demon's scent . . . wrapped around . . . Kagome's . . .

"That's amazing! Mommy always told me I wasn't the only one, but I've never actually seen another hanyou before!"

Smirking, Inuyasha continued to examine Jiko's scent. It soon became apparent that this boy was the source of the smell he had followed. But . . . how could that be?

"That's so awesome! I can't wait to tell Mommy about it!" He smiled brightly, then started to run towards the village. "Come on! I want you to come meet Mommy!"

"Listen. I'm sorry, kid, but there's someone I'm looking for."

"There is?" Jiko stopped and looked back at Inuyasha.

"Yeah. I really need to see her."

The little hanyou boy blinked at him. "Who?"

"Her name's Kagome. I wouldn't suppose you know her?" Hope surged through his heart as the boy's eyes flashed with recognition.

"Why do you wanna see her?"

"I just need to talk to her. That's all."

Jiko twisted his foot on the ground nervously. "Why do you need to talk to her?"

Inuyasha was getting a little fed up with the boy, but if he was gonna get anywhere, he had to keep calm. "We knew each other a long time ago. We were . . . friends." He practically choked as he said the last word.

Suspicion flashed on the boy's features. "She told me never to tell a demon where she was. She said that if a demon came asking for her to simply tell them to leave."

A little taken aback, Inuyasha started talking again after a few moments. "She'll want to see me. Trust me."

Still looking at him with deep suspicion, Jiko still just stood there, sort of sizing him up.

Just then, a shout broke through the air. "Jiko!!! Jiko!!! It's time to come home, dear!!!"

"Mommy!" Jiko said happily as he began to run back to the village, looking over his shoulder only as he was by the gates. "I'll see you later, okay?"

Inuyasha nodded, quite irritated that the boy wouldn't tell him. That only meant that now he would have to sniff her out. The only problem was that the scent he had picked up had been Jiko's. Kagome's was nowhere near this place.

'She must be hiding it,' he thought glumly as he leapt up in a tree on the outskirts of a village. 'But why would she do something like that? Unless . . . she doesn't _want_ to be found . . .'

A sudden, horrible thought suddenly ran through his head. 'Could it be that she . . . that she's trying to get away from me? Is she trying to tell me that she . . . hates me?'

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A beautiful young woman in priestess clothes made her way down the street in the village. Her midnight hair, slightly messing, was pulled up into an elegant design on the back of her head, and her delicate hands were cupped around her mouth.

"JIKO!!! JIKO!!!" She looked slightly exasperated as no one answered. "Now where did that boy run off to?"

Just as the words left her mouth, a red-headed blur shot forward, tackling her in a hug. "Mommy!"

"Jiko . . ." Kagome smiled and hugged him back, glad that he had finally come. But the smile faded fast as he pulled away. "Your face . . . it's cut all over . . ."

Jiko immediately tried to cover up for himself as he saw tears start to form in his mother's eyes. "I just fell out of the tree I was climbing. That's all."

A tear slid down her cheek, but she quickly wiped it away, not liking to seem weak in public. "Come on. Let's go home."

Nodding, Jiko followed after the priestess, ignoring the occasional glares thrown his way.

They were both silent as they made their way home, the hanyou boy holding his mother's hand. After they finally arrived at their small hut, Kagome immediately took a bowl off the floor and started spreading the contents over Jiko's small injuries. His face contorted into one of disgust. Truthfully, the stuff had a very horrendous odor, even to a human, making it a thing worth despising among demons.

After finishing tending to her son's mild injuries, the priestess set the bowl back down on the ground and went over to her herb supply, preparing to make a few antidotes for some of the villagers' ails.

Curious as always to see how his mother made her powerful remedies, he sat down beside her as she went to her grinding tool, already mashing a few plants together.

"Mommy?"

"Yes, Jiko?"

"You'll never guess who I saw today!"

"Really? Who?"

"I saw another hanyou just like me!"

Kagome immediately stopped grinding. "You did?" She sounded a little nervous.

"Yeah! He was really nice to me. In fact, he told me his name. It was Inuyasha!"

A loud clank was heard as Kagome dropped the wheel. "Inu . . . yasha . . ."

Jiko, immediately knowing that something was wrong, put an arm on his mother's shoulder and bent down to see her face. "Mommy? What's wrong?"

The priestess was breathing hard and was perspiring slightly. Her voice was barely above a whisper. "Inuyasha . . ."

"You know him?"

Realizing that she was scaring her son, Kagome immediately straightened up, putting her hair behind her ears. "Yeah . . . I know him . . ."

"Then I guess I should've brought him here with me then. He asked me if I knew you. If I'd known he was your friend, I would've brought him to see you."

"That's okay, Jiko." Kagome patted him reassuringly on the shoulder, trying to make it seem as if nothing was bothering her. Looking out the window, she saw that the sun was setting, tinging the sky a deep red. "Why don't you get some sleep? You're gonna have a busy day tomorrow."

"I am?" Jiko asked as he laid down on his mat.

His mother only smiled.

Yawning, the boy curled up. "Good night, Mommy . . ."

"Good night, Jiko . . ."

"Mommy?"

"Yes?"

"Can you sing me that song?"

Kagome's eyes widened a bit. "Jiko . . . Mommy's a little tired . . . can't she sing it to you tomorrow?"

Jiko shook his head. "I want to hear it tonight. Please, Mommy . . ."

Sighing sadly, she gave in. "Alright, but you have to go to sleep . . ."

Smiling and nodding, Jiko closed his eyes.

"I don't want you to give it all up

And leave your own life collecting dust

And I don't want you to feel sorry for me

You never gave us a chance to be

And I don't need you to be by my side

To tell me that everything's alright

I just wanted you to tell me the truth

You know I'd do that for you"

By this time, Jiko was making quiet sleeping sounds, but not deterred by that fact at all, Kagome continued, trying to keep tears from falling.

"Cause I did enough to show you that I

Was willing to give and sacrifice

And I was the one who was lifting you up

When you thought your life had had enough

And when I get close, you turn away

There's nothing that I can do or say

So now I need you to tell me the truth

You know I'd do that for you"

Ending the song with a sad, soft voice, Kagome took a blanket from the corner and laid it over her son, tucking it in to make sure that he was warm. Smiling slightly, she stood and exited the hut, a single tear sliding gently down her cheek.

Once outside, she gazed up at the stars, seeing how clear they were on this cloudless night. Sighing, she leaned back on the wall behind her and slid to the ground, never taking her eyes from those stars.

It had been six years since she had seen him. Six long, painfully slow years, never once laying eyes on her beloved hanyou. She knew full well that he was looking for her, but she had to remain hidden from him. There was no way she could go back to him. Ever.

She shivered as a cold wind blew. Winter was coming, and the nights were already beginning to bring frost on the grass. Many people would soon be coming to her for their typical colds, and she was well ready for them. And yet . . . she didn't know if she would be here . . .

All those six years, she had been running. Running from him. Afraid. And now he had found her again. But this time he was closer than ever before, and he had even met Jiko. She would have to run again. Run away to the farthest reaches of Japan where he could never hope to find her.

A dark silhouette appeared on the road in front of her hut, and she finally turned her gaze from the stars to stare at the figure.

The man before her slowly was walking towards her, something familiar about his stance. It wasn't until he got into the dim moonlight filtering through the trees that she could recognize him.

Inuyasha.

Kagome's eyes opened wide for a minute before they turned down to the ground, trying to appear resolute.

Inuyasha walked forward; his footsteps inaudible as he padded on the soft dirt. When he finally reached her, he knelt down, staring into her eyes.

For a moment, she looked back. Her eyes meeting the beautiful gold for the first time in years.

Trying to suppress any signs of recognition, she looked away. Unbeknownst to her, with all her efforts, more tears fell.

"Here." His voice, more like a distant memory than anything else, drew back her attention as he held out a handkerchief to her. With trembling hands, she took it, but not wiping away the tears, merely holding it tight in her fist.

"Thank you . . ." Her voice was almost inaudible and raspy, but all the same, he heard her anyway, a very small, almost non-existent smile creeping onto his face.

Hearing something, he stood, and walked back the way he came, occasionally sniffing at a hut he passed.

Kagome stared after him. What the heck could he be thinking? Maybe . . . he wasn't even there . . . and it was all a trick of her mind . . .

Looking down at the small cloth he handed her, she clutched it tighter. No. He was real.

She watched as his silhouette disappeared back into the darkness. More tears welling up in her eyes, Kagome held the handkerchief even closer. 'He didn't . . . he didn't recognize me . . .'

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**So I updated. I'm sure you're all glad that I did so seeing as there are so many of you. I'm glad you all like the story.**

**Oh btw, if ya'll are wondering why he couldn't tell that was Kagome: she's changed a lot over the years. Not only that, but she is masking her scent. So basically, she looks, acts, and smells completely different. Well . . . maybe not entirely the smelling part but that's for a later chapter . . . Review please and tell me if you're ready to kill me or not!**

**And here's the shout-outs!**

**Kagome's-Dieing-Love: Jiko means 'accident.' Unfortunately, you're gonna hafta wait to find out more about him. blinks innocently**

**ChibiKenshin6490: Yes. This is an Inu/Kag story, and I'm proud of it!**

**Guardian of the Hell Gate: Thanks for the tip! I'll remember that if I ever think people don't like my story!**

**Leona: Yep. Kagome has a son. And he's really her son too. But you're gonna hafta wait to find out more about him. Sowwy! smiles innocently**

**And Thanks To: Ayame (my first reviewer!), j baker (hanyoupup ), Black Witchy (love the name!), brigurl (did it really rock your sox?), kagome2009 (thx for reading! Talk to ya soon! ), topgal2882 (99 Really?), animefreak321654 (Boy can I relate to the name!), Sarcasm Girl8 (Now tell me. Did you really mean that or were you being sarcastic?)**


	3. Recognition

**Sanci: Yep. She has a kid. You'll find out the other little bit in this chapter . . . or maybe the next . . .**

**Amaya: ...blushes... Ya think so?**

**Disclaimer: I had a dream once that I was Inuyasha's friend. But in the end, I started wondering what his name was. So tell me. How can I own him if I can't remember his name?**

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Inuyasha woke with a start the following morning. He had had that horrible dream again.

Kagome was there, still looking exactly as she had the last time he'd seen her, wearing her school uniform with her giant, yellow backpack swung over her shoulder. She had her arms crossed and was glaring at him.

He, of course, being the idiot he was, had just been sat and was cursing, face down in the ground. Wrenching himself up, he glared right back at her, growling.

"How dare you, bitch! What the hell'd I do this time!?!"

Growling right back, she turned on her heel, storming away into the forest, yelling before she disappeared one final 'sit.'

Smashing into the ground again, he cursed her very existence, muttering about how she had ruined his life. Sitting up and glaring after her, he refused to make a single move to go after her, though his mind screamed at him to go and apologize like there was no tomorrow. His stupid pride shot him in the foot again.

But the thing Inuyasha hated most about this dream, was that it had really happened, six years ago. That was the last time he had seen Kagome.

How he regretted that day . . .

If there was one thing he could change about his entire life, it would be whatever it was that he had done to provoke her. He couldn't even remember it now. He couldn't even remember a single one of their little squabbles. All he knew was that he had been a jackass and because of it, Kagome was gone.

But he'd find her. No matter what. Even if she truly did hate him now, he would find her . . . and apologize.

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Kagome meandered carelessly down the street, carrying a jug of scalding hot water with her. She was heading to a villager's house whose occupants had been attacked by a poisonous snake demon. Their wounds needed treatment badly, and right now, the only person any of the villagers believed could save them was her.

Suddenly, her fiery red-headed son ran up to her, grabbing onto her kimono and smiling up at her. She smiled lovingly back, noticing that the cuts from the day before had already vanished.

"Mommy?"

"Yes, Jiko?"

"Can I go play in the fields again?"

A small frown crossed Kagome's lips. "Why would you want to do that?"

Noticing the concern in his mother's voice, Jiko looked away from her. "I'm not going to go climb any trees today . . ."

Sighing, the priestess understood. "And what are you going to go do then?"

Jiko turned back to look at her again, smiling widely. "I want to see if I can find Inuyasha again!"

Kagome stopped dead in her tracks.

"Mommy? What's wrong?" Jiko tugged at her sleeve.

She looked worriedly down at him. How in the world could she explain it to him?

Honey . . . Mommy once loved that hanyou, and ever since that day six years ago, Mommy doesn't want to see him again.

No . . . that'd never work. Explaining it that way would lead to questions. Questions she never wanted to answer.

"Mommy?" Jiko tugged harder as he worriedly looked up at her.

"Oh, um, Jiko . . ." Kagome knelt down beside her son, looking him straight in the eye. The curiosity and worry shone through their fiery red depths.

Those eyes . . .

Shaking those thoughts from her mind, she smiled weakly. "Mommy . . . Mommy doesn't want you to see that hanyou . . ."

His eyes opened wide. "What?! Why?"

"Because . . ." She couldn't find the strength within her to tell him the horrible truth of the matter. "Because Mommy says so."

"That's not fair!" Jiko tore himself away from his mother, looking at her with a eyes full of betrayal.

"Jiko . . ." Kagome couldn't contain the sadness she felt at the look in his eyes. "Please . . . I . . . I just . . ." No longer could she contain the emotions boiling inside her.

How she wanted to see him. Needed to see him. Needed to run into his arms and cry her heart out into his warm embrace.

A tear slid down her cheek as she stared down at the ground.

The boy, sensing his mother's sudden distress, rushed forward and immediately pulled her into a hug.

Not far away, another hanyou crouched, hidden, on a rooftop, watching the whole scene. Even his delicate ears couldn't pick up what they were saying through the noise of the village, but he could sure as heck see that something was definitely wrong.

Crawling a bit closer, still hidden from view, he watched as the priestess stood up, wiping away her tears and putting on a brave face. She picked back up the jug she had been carrying and started walking again, followed closely by the boy known as Jiko.

Inuyasha's ears pricked forward as he leap silently onto a closer rooftop, right beside where the two were.

"Please, Mommy. Please. He's the only other one like me I've ever met."

The woman stopped and looked down at Jiko's pleading eyes. She sighed. "Alright, Jiko . . ."

He immediately squealed in delight. "Thank you, Mommy!"

She smiled half-heartedly back. Why, Inuyasha could only assume, was because she was afraid that he would hurt her son in some way.

Jiko took a few steps forward and started sniffing. He started meandering around, sniffing at random objects until he came to the hut that Inuyasha was perched upon. A smile burst over his features. "Inuyasha!"

The priestess's eyes immediately widened as Jiko called out his name so close to her. Without a second thought, said hanyou leapt down off the hut and landed right in front of Jiko, smirking.

"Looks like ya found me."

It took all of Kagome's power to keep herself from crying again. He was so close . . . yet never further away . . .

"Oh! Inuyasha! This is my Mommy!" He ran over to Kagome and pulled her forward towards Inuyasha.

Giving off another familiar smirk, he held out his hand to her. "I'm Inuyasha. I'm sure your son's told you all about me."

Shakily, she took his hand, feeling the warmth of it, and her whole body was suddenly filled with a mad desire for him. But . . . no . . . she couldn't . . .

"I'm, um, Jiko's mother . . ."

Slightly confused at her not telling him her name, Inuyasha let go of her hand, taking in her scent and appearance. She had long, black hair tied messily to the back of her head. Her eyes were a brilliant brown with a hint of ice around the edges. Her face was very mature, almost . . . over mature, as if she had been forced to grow up too fast for her own good. The priestess clothes she wore fit loosely around her small frame, obviously too big for her.

But the most curious thing about her was her scent. There almost seemed to not be one. There were, of course, the scents of sickness and blood and miko powers, but besides that, there was nothing. No trace of a distinctive smell that set her apart from any other person.

Before he could open his mouth to voice this fact, Jiko had grabbed him by the hand and was trying to drag him away, into the fields. "Come on! I wanna play!"

The priestess watched, almost longingly, as he got further and further away. But before he had reached the gates, she had taken a step forward, and another, and another. Jiko stopped pulling him long enough so that she got within a few feet of him, just staring at him with that same longing in her eyes.

Recognition flashed through his eyes. He felt his heart stop as everything else besides the two of them seemed to freeze in time. "K-Kagome . . ." His voice seemed to be lost in his throat.

She took another step forward, but tripped over a rock, sending her to fall, wide eyed to the ground.

Before he knew what he was doing, he had caught her in his arms, holding her tightly. She herself, still braced for impact, stared up at him, tears pricking at the corner of her eyes.

Before she could stop herself, she hugged him tightly, crying into him. "Oh, ai . . ."

Slightly surprised, he quietly wrapped his arms around her, closing his eyes. "Kagome . . ."

Jiko merely stood, watching his mother break down as Inuyasha held her. She suddenly couldn't hold herself up anymore, and her knees shook as she started to slide to the ground, Inuyasha following, never letting her go.

"I'm sorry, Kagome . . ." Inuyasha hugged her even tighter. "And . . . I love you . . ."

Kagome gasped.

No . . . no . . . it couldn't be . . . he couldn't to that to her . . . he couldn't . . . he couldn't possibly make it any harder . . .

She looked up at him, tears completely covering her face. With a gentle hand, he wiped them away, looking for any signs of hate or rejection.

"No!" she suddenly cried out, pushing him away from her. "No . . ."

She was on her hands and knees, crying. He held out a hand to her, but lowered it as his heart shattered. "Then . . . you hate me?"

She gasped again. No . . . she didn't hate him. She couldn't leave him believing that. She loved him too. She loved him more than anything. "Inuyasha . . ."

He stood up, his bangs covering the hurt in his eyes. "I understand . . ." With that, he turned to leave, to get the hell out of that place, forever.

Kagome, still crying her heart out, mouthed at him. No . . . Inuyasha . . . I love you . . .

He slowly walked out of the village, his heart shattering again with every step.

She hated him. She really hated him.

No matter what he had told himself, he had always expected her to come leaping back into his arms after he found her and apologized. He never expected her to really _hate_ him. It just didn't seem possible.

Jiko suddenly shot in front of him, blocking his progress with his arms outstretched. "Inuyasha, where are you going?!"

"I'm leavin', kid . . ." His voice held not a trace of hope.

"You can't just leave Mommy like that!" The edges of his eyes sparkled with yet to shed tears.

Mommy . . . wait . . . Mommy?

"Wait a minute . . . Kagome's your mother?"

Looking slightly confused, the boy nodded. "Of course she's my mother. What else would she be?"

Inuyasha stared at him, dumbstruck. Kagome was his mother? But . . . how could that be? The boy was a hanyou like he was, and there wasn't a single demon in the village. And yet he was certain that _he_ couldn't possibly be the father. So . . .

He looked back over his shoulder at the priestess, still sobbing on the ground. And that's when he smelled it. Kagome, obviously seeing the futility in masking her scent anymore, had let the barrier down. Her scent, as pleasant as ever, seemed to be, well, different. The sweetness of motherhood had also mixed in.

But there was something else. Something that made his blood come to a full boil. The reek of another man. Not on her, but _in_ her. A soft growl rumbled in his throat. She had betrayed him. She had _betrayed_ him. His mind screamed at him for ever trusting his heart to another, for ever believing that anyone would ever love a mere half breed like him.

With one final growl, he turned and brushed past Jiko, back into the forest, to leave forever and never come back. Ever.

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**...groans... Angst . . . I feel really, really depressed now. And I'm still not saying anything more about Jiko!!! That will come when it comes!!! But let's just say that the meaning of his name basically summarizes the whole situation. And I know that Jiko's not Inu's son but that's just . . . well . . . can you not yell at me for that please? ...looks But thank you for reviewing! I feel so damn popular now! Over 20 reviews in a day! Woah! That's gotta be my record! Anyway, I felt so proud of you guys that I'm updating now. But you'll have to wait till Saturday for the next one.**

**And here's the shout outs:**

**KristaB (first reviewer!!!): ...looks away from you... Um . . . well . . . he knows she's her now . . . ...nervous laugh...**

**animefreak321654: To tell you the truth, I don't know if Shippo's gonna be in this fic or not . . . maybe . . . maybe . . .**

**Mysticalflame: You'll find out about Jiko soon enough. And as I said before, the meaning of the name kinda explains the whole darn thing! Well, I don't wanna give _too_ much away now. ...smiles evilly...**

**Amaya: Awwwww . . . I didn't mean to confuse you . . . ...pats you on the back... Tell me how I can unconfuse you, and I'll do it.**

**ArizonaGoddess89: Yeah. Inu is sweet. He's just so darn worried . . . and so emotional about it . . . so sweet . . . And yeah, you're right about Kagome. She _is_ a wreck. And poor Jiko too. the little guy... But I'm afraid his troubles have barely begun. Now Inu's mad at him too! ...sighs... But yeah. Getting rid of Kikyo was a high priority on my things to do in this fic. ...smiles widely... And I agree completely. She is a nasty little yeah.**

**PadFootCc: ...sighs... I know . . . it's really sad . . . she's right there, and he doesn't recognize her! ...sighs again and shakes head...**

**dragonSpired48: Actually, this is my third fic. I've also authored "The Mystery of the Past and Love" and "Hard to Get." And I did read your fic, and I would've reviewed except my compy was being stubborn and blocked the pop-up! So consider this shout out as my review: UPDATE NOW!!! Okay I'm done. **

**animefreakashley: Oh, come on! This is only technically the second chapter, and you want me to finish it! That'd be pretty darn boring if you asked me . . . no offense . . . But I know where you're coming from. I'm the author, and I'm already sick of the angst and want the fluff!!!**

**Mage of Swords: Yeah, I agree. Prejudice is a VERY bad thing. ...whacks all the kids that did that over the head... And yes, even though it doesn't exactly look like it now, this is and always will be an Inu/Kag fic. The way it should be.**

**Sanci: Now didn't I tell you I'd update? But yes, it really is sad that he didn't recognize her . . . I mean, she was less than a foot in front of him for crying out loud! ...sighs... And now he thinks she hates him . . . someone really needs to straighten him out . . .**

**Jaeli: I would too. Well . . . either him or my Fluffy. ...looks at him lovingly... Oh yes. You'll find out the horrible truth soon enough. Just pray that Inu won't take it too roughly . . .**

**ChibiKenshin6490: Well. As you just saw, they did get to talk. Not very much. But they talked. Now the tension's even greater! Don't ya just love it!**

**Meeko: Well . . . I don't know whether or not I'm going to bring the others into this yet, but it's a possibility. But if I do, it probably won't be much . . . maybe a chapter or two . . . and no, unfortunately the shikon's not complete. I'm probably not going to bring it into this story, unless of course I decide to add a little more spice to this. Let's just say I haven't completely decided how everything's going to turn out yet.**

**And Also Thanks to: Ayame (You are VERY welcome!), brigurl (Awesometacular? Lol.), misforgiven-angel (...gives you inhaler... I think you'll need this because I'm sure you're gonna run out of breath when you review this one.), xbleakheartx (Me too.), ShadyLady06 (...blushes... You think so? Thank you . . .), Sarcasm girl8 (...smiles really widely...)**


	4. Running

**Mizukithepanda: ...stares at you, wide eyed... You are very, VERY close. In fact, you're correct about like everything. Except for who Jiko's dad is. ...snickers evilly... See my post a.n. please. But I'm still REALLY impressed . . . is my fic that predictable?**

**Guardian of the Hell Gate: You didn't have to wait THAT long, did you?**

**inu'sgirl67: Actually, yes. It's supposed to be that way. Kag is afraid of Inu. ...mock wonder... But why?**

**Disclaimer: No habla . . . no habla . . . uh . . . Japanese . . .**

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It had been days now. No. Weeks. It had been weeks now, and she hadn't seen hide or hair of him. He must've . . . given up . . .

"Mommy?"

But she couldn't just leave him thinking that she _hated _him. No. She'd die before she hated him. How could he believe such a horrendous thing?

"Mommy?!"

But what could she do . . . she couldn't go out and find him. If she did, everything would finally be revealed. He'd know why she ran away . . . and despise her for it.

"Mommy!"

Finally blinking back to reality, Kagome looked down at Jiko who was giving her an annoyed look.

"Uh, yes, Jiko?"

"It's about time you snapped out of it!" He immediately smiled widely at her from his mat. "Will you sing me the song, Mommy?"

"The song?"

"Mommy? Are you feeling okay?" Jiko sat up and felt her forehead. "You seem a little feverish . . ."

Chuckling half-heartedly, she removed his hand. "I'm fine, Jiko."

"You've been acting strange . . ."

"Mommy's just been thinking . . . that's all . . ."

"About Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha . . .

"Mommy?"

Inuyasha . . .

"Moooooommy."

Inuyasha . . .

"MOMMY!!!"

She snapped out of it again. "Uh, y-yes? Jiko?"

"Why do you always space out when I talk to you about him?"

"I-It's nothing, Jiko . . . just go to sleep . . ."

"Then sing me the song . . . won't you?"

"Uh . . . Jiko . . . Mommy . . . Mommy really doesn't feel like singing at all right now . . ."

His face immediately contorted into a pout. "Why won't you sing? You haven't sung to me since I first met Inuyasha." Jiko's face immediately showed revelation. "Is . . . is the song about him?"

Kagome immediately felt like a dagger had been shot through her heart. The song _was_ about him. It was her simple way of keeping him around, even after everything that had happened. Despite everything, she still loved him with all her heart.

"It is, isn't it?"

The priestess immediately looked away from him, knowing that he knew. Knowing that he would soon start asking questions. The exact questions she had hoped never to answer.

"Was . . . was he my daddy?"

Tears threatened to spill from her eyes as the words came from his mouth. "Oh, Jiko . . . how I wish he was your father . . ."

His face split with surprise. "Th-Then . . . who?"

The question she'd hoped never to hear. Who is my father? Little did the boy before her know, the question itself was enough to shatter the priestess's resolve.

Who is my father?

"J-Jiko . . ." Her voice shook as she tried to find the words. "M-Mommy . . . Mommy . . . d-" She stopped. She couldn't tell him. She couldn't tell him. There was no way she could tell him. That piece of information would destroy him. She knew it. She could never let him know. Ever.

"Mommy? Who was it?"

"Jiko . . . Mommy can't tell you . . ."

She expected him to protest, but he didn't. He merely gave her a look of pure understanding, way beyond his years.

I understand, Mommy.

She could practically hear his voice speak the words as he merely looked at her with those ever understanding eyes. Kagome almost felt like she could tell him everything that had happened, and he'd 'understand.' He wouldn't add any of the extra emotion to it.

But she knew better. No matter what the outside looked like, the inside would be viciously torn apart by the truth. And she couldn't bare to see that fate happen to her one and only son.

"Jiko . . . please go to bed . . ."

Looking slightly downhearted, he nodded and curled up on his mat, closing his eyes tightly.

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A few hours later, Kagome was traveling on an all too familiar path into the forest, an old, worn bow clutched in her hand.

She had to get him off her mind. If she didn't, everything she had worked so hard to hide would come to the surface. And the best way that she could think of was archery, one of her favorite pastimes.

Traveling deeper and deeper into the forest, her eyes suddenly became ever frostier than before, clouding into a cold abyss she only wore when her duties called for it.

Stopping in a clearing, she closed her eyes, feeling all the presences around her. Silently, she drew an arrow and pulled the bow string taut.

Fasting than lightning, she turned around, opening her eyes and releasing the arrow. With a small thud, it hit dead center on a tree, pinning a small lizard demon to the rough bark.

Walking over to it, the demon started squealing and writhing around. Kagome grabbed it by its tail as she removed the arrow, letting it squirm in her grip.

"Gotcha." She smiled as the demon continued to wriggle around between her fingers. Suddenly, it twisted around, sinking its fangs into her hand. Kagome immediately released it as blood oozed from the wound.

"Kuso!" She sank to the ground, already searching through her clothes for something to bind it with. Her hand finally fell on a soft cloth, and she pulled it out.

It was the handkerchief that Inuyasha had given her. Kagome sighed as she fingered it gently. He really did care for her, and she couldn't just leave him out there to believe that she betrayed him.

Standing up, she gently tucked it back into her clothes as she drew another arrow and placed it in her bow. Pulling it taut, she aimed at the center of a tree about fifty feet away.

Inuyasha . . .

Sighting along the arrow, images flashed through her mind.

The well.

The tree.

Inuyasha.

The jewel.

The arrow.

Shippo.

Miroku.

Sango.

Inuyasha.

Inuyasha.

Inuyasha.

As she pulled the bow even tighter, the image of Inuyasha and his look of betrayal as she cried flashed through her mind's eye.

Whether she wanted to believe it or not, she _had_ betrayed him. She had left without ever telling him why. She left, leaving him to believe that it was all his fault, and she never cared for him.

But she _did_ care for him. That's why she left. That's why she could never see him again. But she had, and now she had hurt him. The whole reason she left was so that he wouldn't get hurt, and yet somehow, he had.

She readied herself to release the arrow. All she had to do was concentrate for a few seconds, leaving those thoughts behind.

Suddenly, a flash of red and silver flashed before her eyes, leaping and seeming to hover where her bow was aimed.

Inuyasha . . .

The string snapped.

Inuyasha . . .

The image faded as she sank to the ground.

Inuyasha . . .

She had betrayed him. She had _betrayed _him. She was no better than Kikyo to him anymore. And this wasn't all caused by a power hungry demon either. She really had betrayed him.

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Jiko's eyes slowly opened as the sun peeked through the cracks in the door. He rolled over, moaning, then lazily looked over at his mother's mat.

He shot straight up.

She wasn't there.

"Mommy!" He scrambled to his feet, frantically searching for her. "MOMMY!!!"

He ran out of the hut, tripping slightly over his blanket.

"MOMMY!!!" Tears pricked at his eyes as no one answered. He ran out and around the village, sniffing desperately but not picking up anything.

Running out into the fields, tears slid down his face as he found not a trace of his mother.

"MOMMY!!!!!" he screamed. Yet again, no one answered. "Mommy . . ." He sniffed, staring off into nowhere, tears sliding casually down his face.

"Well, well, well . . . if it isn't our favorite little hanyou . . ."

Jiko turned slowly around, coming face to face with his tormentor and his friends. The boy was tossing a rock into the air, never taking his glare from Jiko.

"Leave me alone!" The hanyou fought back tears of anger as he glared back at the much older boy.

The girl burst out in fake laughter. "Why if you aren't a feisty little thing today . . . what's the matter? Did your mom abandon you?"

Growling, Jiko fought back the wave of tears that threatened to spill as she said the words. "Mommy would never leave me!"

"Oh really?" The other boy looked around. "I don't see her."

"She . . . she just went to another village! That's all! She'll be back in a couple of days! You'll see!"

"Oh really?" The leader quit tossing the rock and held it tightly in his grubby hand. "Then why didn't she go tell the headman?"

"B-Because . . ." He struggled to find an excuse. "It was an emergency!"

"Is that so?" The leader smirked evilly. "So much of an emergency that she left her little hanyou son behind? That doesn't seem very smart to me . . ."

Jiko took a step back as the boy's friends also started smirking. "Wh-Wh-Whadaya mean?"

The group of children started taking slow steps towards him, following his backwards stride. In an instant, Jiko was running away at top speed as the children pelted rocks at him.

"Get out of here, half breed!"

"You don't belong here, hanyou!"

"We never wanna see your ugly face again!"

Tears flowing freely from his eyes, he took off into the forest, pursued to its edge by the gang of children who were still throwing rocks with full force at him.

'Mommy . . . where are you?!' The little half demon ran deeper and deeper into the woods, further than he had ever gone before.

He finally stopped in a clearing to catch his breath, still crying. "Mommy, why'd you leave?" His words echoed through the trees, reverberating his message all over the forest.

A slight scent tickled at his nose, and he looked down. A small trace of blood was on the forest floor. Human blood. Blood from a woman. A familiar woman.

'Mommy . . .'

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I don't know about you, but I am personally not happy with this chapter. However, I promised an update and here it is. So . . . yeah . . . I hope you enjoyed . . .

Now to answer about half of you guys' questions:

**Who is Jiko's dad?**

YOU'LL FIND OUT SOON ENOUGH!!! I WOULD tell you, except that would give the whole story away. But I'll give you guys a hint: IT'S NOT MY FLUFFY!!! ...huggles him tightly... Trust me. I love him too much. So it's not him. And I'm NOT yelling at you guys. I'm just trying to get people's attention when they skim over this stuff. **HELLO!!! READ THIS!!!** Okay . . . I'll shut up now . . .

Or maybe not . . . cause here's the shout outs!

**ChibiKenshin6490 (first reviewer!): ...pats you reassuringly on the back... Don't worry. They will. Everything'll be happy in the end.**

**ArizonaGoddess89: ...cries with you and hands you a tissue... I know . . . it is sad . . . if I was a reviewer, I'd've killed me by now. But lucky for me, I know how this is gonna turn out . . . sorta . . . But yes, they were able to talk, which is always a good thing. Unless it winds up the way that one did . . . I guess you'll have to wait to see when they talk again. P.S.: Thank you for not asking above question. I might be patient, but getting 30 reviews all asking the same thing gets pretty old. Thanks for adding variety. And thanks for liking my fic so much!!!**

**Ayame: As you saw . . . I think . . . I read your story. It's a very good idea. I can just imagine the look on Koga's face . . . ...grins at the thought...**

**Amaya: You think you figgered it out, eh? Well . . . I'm pretty sure you got the right idea. Though I'm not positive. Just tell me if there's anything I can do to unconfuse you even more.**

**Mizukithepanda: ...sing song voice... I'm not telling you . . . ...normal voice... Though now you know it isn't my Fluffy. I wouldn't make him evil and have him do that. Besides, why would he want her when he has me? ...huggles him again... And don't worry about the over-confident thing. I'm just . . . pleased . . . with my reviewers. I've NEVER seen myself as a perfect writer. And as you may (or may not) have read above, I'm not happy at all with this chapter. It doesn't have the 'flow' I love . . . Anyway, I appreciate the reviews. Keep 'em coming!**

**ShadyLady06: Yes. I completely agree. Silly Inuyasha . . . ...lightly smacks him on the back of the head... He's never gonna understand how much Kagome cares for him. And yes! Yeah for my keeping them in character! Of course, if Kag seems a liiiiiittle bit OOC in this chapter, it's cause . . . well . . . it's been six years and she's a little tormented . . . yeah . . . I'll shut up now . . .**

**Jaeli: ...sheds a tear... Yes it is . . . and now poor Jiko's out on his own . . . and Kagome's missing! Though we all probably know where she headed off to . . . Oh yes, Jiko's father lives . . . ...points far, far away . . . in Japan... over there. And give him this rotten one for me. ...hands it over...**

**Neko-Chick: ...whacks Inu... How could you?! Thinking that Kagome betrayed you! You baka hanyou! Now kiss and make up! Now! I command you! Muhuhahahaha . . . yeah . . . I'll stop my ranting now . . .**

**Aarolye: Oh no it doesn't! ...holds up Japanese/English dictionary... I looked up 'accident' in this thing and it said 'jiko!' Ha! You must've thought geeko . . . which does mean school. Ya gotta admit they do sound alike . . . but I really do have a Japanese/English dictionary, and I picked out Jiko's name specifically for its meaning.**

**twincool: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry . . . ...hands you a tissue... But I also love it when they misunderstand each other. And I also love stories that make me sad and depressed. It's weird . . . that's why I wrote this . . . yeah . . .**

**MaekoChan: ...drags Inu back by his collar... There. Now's he's back. Now kiss Kagome and tell her that you don't care about Jiko! You heard me! Now do it before I sit you! Whoops . . . sorry Inu . . . ...laughs nervously... Yeah. Thanks for reviewing!**

**Mage of Swords: Well . . . ...thinks... . . . sorta . . . I guess you're right . . . but it's not _entirely_ why she doesn't wanna be around him . . . but you're pretty darn close! You're just like Mizukithepanda . . . freaking me out like that . . . ...shifty eyes to all reviewers... But yeah . . . poor Inu-baby . . . ... hugs him... It's okay . . . she doesn't hate you . . . ...suddenly becomes evil... SO GO AND APOLOGIZE TO HER AND TELL HER YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT JIKO!!! ...rounds on Kagome... AND YOU!!! TELL HIM THAT YOU LOVE HIM AND TELL JIKO WHO IS DAD IS!!! ...glares at them both then goes over to Jiko and comforts him...**

**Leona: Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah! Don't go getting the wrong idea now! She didn't actually betray him. Inu just _thinks_ that poor Kagome betrayed him. With all that happened, I'd be really confused too.**

**brigurl: I LOVE your words. Speaking of which, I've come up with a few of my own: funner, funnily, and geezy. Just random stuff that comes out of my mouth for no apparent reason . . . but here ...gives you a pad of paper... tell me more! And thanks for reviewing!**

**j baker: ...huggles Fluffy... Nope. Not Fluffy. And I don't know if I'm gonna put Koga in this. I don't want him to ruin everything, ya know? But I've decided I AM gonna put some other favs in here. Soon too . . . ...thinks... I'll have to write it before I know _how_ soon though . . .**

**Also thanks to: PadFootCc (OMG yes!), Femalewolfdemon8 (I think the answer to your question is 'yes.'), Black Spell (Thx. See above.), animefreak321654 (Here. Here! Here!!!), chibi-chan666 (Here ya go. ...hands over chapter and an Inu plushie...), Double E (...happy... Thank you!), Zarbok (Short but sweet. Love it. Thanks!), Sarcasm Girl8 (How was it 'happyish?' I thought it was downright depressing . . .), Yulia Jade (Thank you so much! ...is VERY happy...)**


	5. Jiko's Father

**Now I know ya'll are pretty pissed at me for not updating this story for a long time while making another one. Here's the thing: the story I was writing has been in a notebook of mine for the past . . . forever. On the contrary, these stories come off the top of my head as I write them. And I've discovered that I write terribly on paper. So I haven't been able to write these, while I gave said notebook to a friend of mine who, thankfully, editted it enough for it to be decent. So here I am, updating.**

**Btw, TD. I don't wanna hear it. I know what you're thinking, but please, uh, don't, uh, yeah . . . yell at me . . .**

**Disclaimer: ...hugs compy... I love you! I own you! I own all the pictures on you! ...stops hugging it and thinks for a sec... Too bad that's about all I own . . .**

* * *

Kagome silently slid to the base of a tree, exhausted from her weeks of wandering. She hadn't eaten or slept in days, and it would be a miracle if she had either until she got to the safety of another village. She looked up at the full moon, appreciating its comfort, thinking over everything that had happened to her. 

_Flashback_

_A much younger Kagome slung her backpack beside the well, sitting on its edge to fume. 'Stupid Inuyasha. Always being such a jerk. I swear, I wish I never met him.'_

_She sighed, peering into the well. 'What am I supposed to do? I can't leave now. Didn't he say that he caught a whiff of Naraku? They'll need me. The last thing I want is to come back and find them all dead . . .'_

_Sighing again, she stood up and swung her backpack over her shoulder. 'I'll give him one more chance. One more insult, and I'll leave for a month.' Still fuming, she entered back into the forest._

_After walking for a few minutes, she gazed around, not recognizing her surroundings. "Don't tell me . . ." she said out loud. She groaned. "I'm lost . . ."_

_Setting her backpack down on the ground, she started looking around, trying to find a landmark she recognized. There were none._

'_Oh, this is just great. First, I get in a fight with Inuyasha and now I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere! This is all Inuyasha's fault!' Fuming more than before, she took one more sweep with her eyes . . . and saw something._

"_Hello?" She took a cautious step towards it. "Is someone there?"_

_The thing in front of her slowly shifted into focus. It was a man. A man with short, fire red hair that had his back to her._

"_Hello?" She could tell the man was a youkai, but he didn't seem to be a harmful one. "Can you help me find my way back to my friends?"_

_The demon ever so slowly turned to face her, his eyes still hidden in shadow. "Alone, are you, miko?"_

_The way the man said it sent chills down Kagome's spine. "Uh . . . yeah . . . listen. Can you help me find my way back?"_

"_Are they looking for you?"_

"_Umm . . ." She started to back away from him. His questions were getting to her. "I . . . don't think so . . ."_

"_Good . . ." His eyes suddenly glowed blood red._

"_Wha-What are you doing?" Kagome started backing up faster. Before she knew what was going on, the demon had her by the shoulders. "Let me go!"_

_The glow disappeared from his eyes, revealing them to be a burning red, burrowing into her soul. She found herself paralyzed, unable to move out of fear._

_The youkai grinned evilly. "Such a pretty, young thing . . ." he cooed, stroking her cheek with his fingers. "And a miko as well . . ."_

_Kagome started shaking. "S-Stop . . . wh-what d-do you w-want with me?"_

"_Just a little pleasure." His grin widened._

"_N-No . . . Inuyasha . . . help . . ." She could barely bring her voice above a whisper._

"_No one will come. You're wasting your time." The demon started tracing down her face and neck._

"_Inuyasha . . . Inuyasha . . ."_

"_Silence." He wrapped his hand around her neck, and it suddenly felt like fire on her bare skin. "You're mine . . ."_

_End Flashback_

A rustle in the bushes grabbed her attention away from the moon. She sensed the presence of a demon close-by, and immediately put up her guard. "Whose there?"

"Just an old friend, miko." Two glowing red eyes appeared in the middle of the dense trees.

Kagome stood up, grabbing an arrow off her back and putting it into her bow. "Who are you?!" Her voice held a hint of ice, a trait she had aquired from her years of unrest.

The creature laughed. "I would've thought that you would be reminded of me everyday, what with that hanyou son of yours running around with you."

The miko's eyes widened greatly, then changed into slits. "What're _you_ doing here?!"

"I found out you had a son. I don't greatly appreciate the fact that you passed my blood onto a hanyou, miko."

Kagome growled in anger, then pulled her bow taut. "Don't you lay a hand on Jiko!"

"Jiko? Is that what you're calling him?"

"Stay away from him!" She let the arrow fly, and with a thud, the eyes disappeared. Kagome couldn't believe it. Did she just do what she thought she just did? "Is he . . ." She walked forward into the trees where the youkai had been.

"Dead?" A voice behind her snapped her back to reality. "Do you honestly think a lowly mortal like you could kill me?"

She turned around, drawing out another arrow but found her throat already in his hand.

"I had to search high and low to find you after I found out about this little 'Jiko.' Did you honestly think you could hide?" He squeezed.

Unable to draw her bow, Kagome resorted to channeling her miko powers into the point where his hand was clenched on her neck. It glowed a pale blue, and she watched the demon flinch.

"You've gotten better," he said though clenched teeth. "But your powers cannot overpower mine . . ." His hand suddenly became as hot as fire as it glowed a dull red.

Kagome cried out in pain.

"Now tell me where this Jiko is. I wish to rid this world of a hanyou with my blood."

"Never!" She squeezed her eyes shut tight. "I'll never tell you where to find him! I don't care what you do to me!"

"I see." He released her, taking a few sniffs of the air as she fell to the ground. "You reek of a village . . .a village and blood. I'll find this blood, and that's where I'll find your son." He smirked, his burning red eyes showing his murderous intent. "Of course, I'll be back for you, miko. After I finish off Jiko that is."

Kagome quickly drew her bow and pointed it at the youkai. "I won't let you touch him!" She released it, and mentally cursed as he backflipped it, vanishing into thin air. "Jiko! I need to find him before he does!" She quickly stood and began running, running back to the village to protect her one and only son.

* * *

Not too far away, said hanyou was slowly making his way through the dense forest, not quite himself this night. His hair was as dark as midnight and his eyes were a soft brown. It was his night of vulnerability. 

Falling to the ground again, he looked up at the moon, tears pricking his eyes. 'Mommy . . . where are you? You've always protected me on these nights . . . why don't you now?'

His mind flashed back to all the times he had been saved from the torment of the villagers by his mother. All the times she had almost sacrificed herself for him. She was the best mother he could ever hope to have, and now she was gone.

'What did I do, Mommy? Should I not have brought Inuyasha back with me? Should I've protected myself better? What did I do?!' He stood up again, wiping away his freshly fallen tears.

He trudged on, doing everything in his power to keep the rest of his torrent of tears at bay. 'I won't cry anymore! I won't cry!' He tripped over yet another exposed tree root, this time landing on his arm. A sickening crack echoed throughout the trees as he cried out in agony.

White hot pain seared through his arm as it limply lay under him. Still trying to keep the tears that were begging to fall at bay, he rolled onto his back, eyes closed as he breathed through clenched teeth. 'Mommy . . . help me . . .'

He opened his eyes, gazing up at the moon, doing his best to ignore the pain. 'Mommy . . . I need you . . . what am I supposed to do without you?'

Suddenly, a drop from an overhanging tree branch fell on his face, causing him to close his eyes to keep it from falling in them. A few more drops fell as a squirrel rushed around in the tree. Jiko felt as if each one that landed on his arm was a knife being stabbed into it.

'I need to find Mommy . . . I can't stay here . . .' He tried to sit up, but found himself off balance with his now broken arm. 'I . . . I can't move . . . what do I do now? What do I do, Mommy?'

He cracked open his eyes again, this time catching a glimpse of a pale face and black hair. It was looking concernedly down at him, the soft brown eyes showing much sympathy.

'Mommy . . .' Jiko let out a small smile as his eyes rolled into the back of his head. 'I knew you wouldn't abandon me . . .'

* * *

Inuyasha sat alone in the Goshinboku, brooding. He hadn't eaten or slept since his run-in with Kagome. In fact, he hadn't moved from that spot since he had returned to the village. 

A brown haired boy ran under the tree, no older than three. "Mommy and Daddy awe wowwied about you, Inu!"

The hanyou looked down at the human boy, his eyes tired.

"Won't you come down?" His eyes shone up with the innocence only a child could possess. Well . . . a child and Kagome . . .

He looked away from him, returning to his thoughts. He couldn't go see the others. He couldn't move from this place. Everything he encountered reminded him of Kagome.

"Pwease?" The kid cocked his head to the side, putting the word more like a question as if he was worried he was going to get hurt for daring to say such a thing.

Inuyasha merely looked in the opposite direction, leaving it as his silent reply. His words had hurt her. His own voice was murder to hear.

"Weww, Mommy and Daddy . . . dey towd me to teww you dat . . . dat dey made some wamen fow you . . . won't you come have some?"

The dog practically laughed. Ramen? They actually expected **that** to cheer him up? Any food reminded him of when she made it, always giving him a little more than the others. And they honestly expected ramen, his favorite food that she had ever made for him, to be able to get him out of his revelry?

Noticing that Inuyasha wasn't about to say anything, let alone get out of the tree, the boy turned around and started walking slowly back to the village. He looked back at the hanyou, his eyes shining with pity. "You can't be sad fowevew, Inu." With that, he turned back down the path and ran the rest of the way home.

'It seems hard to believe, kid.' Inuyasha watched him run into the waiting arms of Sango. She picked him up, smiling as Miroku walked up next to her and put an arm over her shoulders. 'It seems hard to believe . . .'

They could've been like that. They could've been together forever, having kids of their own, never being separated. But he had gone and been a jackass to her. It was no wonder she hated him with all the stuff he'd done.

A slap echoed out from the village, followed by a shout. "NOT IN FRONT OF MUJAKI, YOU HENTAI!"

Inuyasha smirked. The lecher had yet to learn, always groping Sango whenever he had the oppurtunity. If it was even possible, he had gotten worse since the two of them had gotten married. And even more so than that when he had given up being a monk.

Tasuke suddenly ran across the fields as well, her loosely tied black hair trailing out behind her. Her soft brown eyes concentrated on the village.

She was the eldest child of Sango and Miroku, and if there was one person Inuyasha couldn't stand to be around, it was her. Even though they weren't related, she looked incredibly like Kagome. She was even training to become a miko under Kaede, and the old hag had said herself that she was born with a gift just like Kagome had been.

The hanyou turned his eyes away as she tackled Miroku, shaking him frantically. He couldn't bare to see the girl anymore. He could barely stand to live with all the guilt on his shoulders, amplified by everything around him.

His stomach growled loudly, but he ignored it, turning back to the forest. Nothing would be able to take him out of his brooding. Nothing.

Or so he thought . . .

* * *

**Yes, I'm being evil and ending it here. Deal with it.**

**And yes, I know it's short.**

**And yes, I know it sounds kinda farfetched how Jiko got hurt, but I've had first hand experience. When I was five (the same age as Jiko), I was at a friend of mine's birthday party and tripped over a treeroot, consequently breaking my arm.**

**And no, I couldn't stand up afterwards because my body was off balance.**

**And yes, I will start working on the next chappy now that my compy's fixed.**

**And yes, I realize that I was off my lingo until the Inuyasha part at the end. I'm just . . . off. You don't know how many times I tried to start this.**

**And yes, you all finally know who the father is. It's an OC of mine. ...snickers evilly...**

**And yes, Sango and Miroku had two kids. Tasuke (meaning helper)and Mujaki (meaning innocent).**

**And no, I'm not telling you who found Jiko.**

**I think that answers about all the questions that will be asked about this chappy . . .**

**Now for the shout-outs:**

**Sanci: I'm glad you liked the tip on Jiko's dad. And nowthe audiencehas finally met him face to face, though they probably have no clue about what the heck's going on. And thank you for the tip on yours btw. And I hope you say 'yes' to my proposal! Wait . . . that sounded wrong . . . I hope you say 'yes' to what I asked . . . yeah . . .**

**Kanon-Chan (first reviewer!): Thanks for liking my story so much! I know I probably disappointed you with how this chappy was written until the Inu part at the end, but . . . I hope you still like it . . .**

**brigurl: Refunalicious! Refunalicious! Refunafricious! Refunafrifous! Fefunaficious!...tongue is tied in a knot**

**fluffbug: Well . . . I guess that could always be a possibility . . . but he's not. She'd probably kill herself if _that_ happened.**

**Sarcasm Girl8: I hope you're equally satisfied with this chappy!**

**Mage of Swords: Woohoo! You got it right! And no, I'm not going to kill Kagome off. There's just gonna be a lot of angst, whoopy do. And yes, poor, poor Jiko . . . always getting picked on . . . and now he's hurt with who knows who finding him! It could be his mom for all everybody but me knows. ...snickers evilly...**

**monkeysss: Sorry it took so long to get this to you guys. I hope you can forgive little ol' me for having a crappy compy.**

**moonlight dancer: Well, you and everyone else have now met him. I hope you didn't suffer a heart attack from the suspence.**

**xXlovablekdXx: I know it's not exactly 'soon,' but . . . here it is!**

**Inugirl540: I'm really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really sorry that it took so long to get up an update. I know it pisses people off, and I'm working on getting another chappy of this and Hard to Get up. I hope you don't hate me forever for having a chappy compy.**

**And thanks to these guys for not biting my head off for having a crappy compy: crazy-water-girl, Legacyofgrace, xblackheartx, KristaB (What do you mean 'differently?'), Kira/Sarah (Thanks for e-mailing AND reviewingme!), unheard screams, Kagura-chan, InuKaigo, MoonGirl19, Shadow Fox 777 (Yes, she will. Thank God!), fallenangel7583 (Well . . . you've met him now . . . you can have this wonderful shotgun to kill him with ...hands it over...), and Starr**


	6. Illusions and Nightmares

**Disclaimer: For some reason or another, nobody seems to believe me when I say I own Inuyasha . . .**

**_WARNING!!! SOME MAJOR GORE AT THE END OF THIS CHAPTER!!!_**

**

* * *

**Jiko slowly opened his eyes to the darkness around him, his arm still throbbing at his side. The face from before still hovered over him, blurred by his misted vision. "Mom . . . my?" 

His mother's face cracked instantly into a smile. "You're finally awake!"

Her voice sounded different to Jiko, but he shrugged it off as some illness messing with her vocal cords. It _**was**_ incredibly cold . . . but then . . . why wasn't he cold?

The hanyou took in his surroundings more carefully, noticing an incredibly warm blanket over him and his arm set in a splint and wrapped in bandages. He couldn't help but smile. His mother had found him and was taking care of him like always.

"I finally . . ." His voice was weak. "Found . . . you . . ." He tried to sit up, breathing hard while only using his good arm.

"What do you mean?" His mother took on a look of confusion.

"You . . . You left me. . ."

She raised her eyebrow, then turned to face someone else in the hut. "Lady Kaede? What does he mean?"

"He's just confused . . . that's all, child." An old woman stepped forward and kneeled next to Jiko and his mother.

"Do you think we gave him too much medicine? It does seem to have strange effects on people." The girl gave the boy a worried look, hoping he would be alright.

"Nay, Tasuke. His fever has gotten to him. The poor lad." The old woman gave the hanyou a look of pity.

"Tasuke?" Jiko cocked his head. "You're wrong . . . that's Mommy . . ."

His mother looked quite taken aback.

"She couldn't possibly be your mother, boy. She is but a child. Yer age if I'm not mistaken."

The boy's eyes fell on the girl again, now noticing that there could be absolutely no way that she was his mother. His countenance dropped considerably, and out of nowhere, he was stricken with his natural reaction to this kind of situation: fear. He had never once encountered strangers that didn't show him hostility, and the only reason he was being spared now was because he still appeared as a human.

The young girl looked at Jiko with a confused expression. "Is something wrong, Lady Kaede? Why does he look so scared?"

The old miko looked down at the boy with sympathy. "It's alright, boy. We will not harm ye."

'So you say . . .' Jiko thought, wishing more than ever that it really was his mother sitting beside him. Where was she anyways?

"Should I get some more herbs for his fever?" The girl stood, looking ready to do anything to help the boy she didn't even know.

"Aye." The miko nodded, then turned her attention back to the boy, picking up a bowl. "Ye look like ye haven't eaten in days, child." She gave him a warm smile, handing him the dish. "Ye can eat yer fill."

Before he knew what he was doing, Jiko was eating the contents of the bowl like he hadn't eaten a decent meal in years. After a few minutes and a few helpings, he looked up at the old woman, smiling "This reminds me of some of the stuff Mommy makes!"

"So tell me, child. Why were ye found alone in the forest injured so?"

The hanyou's face grew long. "I was . . . I was looking for Mommy . . ." His throat was dry and he cleared it, all the while tightening his face.

Kaede gazed at him, pity evident in her old features.

"She left me alone in the village . . . and those boys . . ." Tears pricked at his eyes for the umpteenth time, but he remembered his vow and swallowed them. But why? Why had his Mommy left him? Why hadn't she come back? He wanted to know. She wouldn't have abandoned him...would she? He shook his head. No, his Mommy would never leave him. She loved him. But why wasn't she back? Was she hurt?

Tasuke chose that tense moment to return, her arms filled with all sorts of herbs. "Lady Kaede!" She dropped them down in a basket by the door. "He's gone! He's not in the Goshinboku!"

"He left?!" Kaede's voice was alarmed as the hanyou helped himself to another serving. "But where could he've gone?! Surely he hasn't gone looking for her again!"

Jiko looked curiously up at the two, trying to balance the bowl on his lap while eating with one hand.

"I shall go searching for him. Ye look after the lad while I'm away."

Tasuke nodded sternly as the old miko left.

"What was that all about?" Jiko set his now empty bowl to the side, licking his lips.

"You don't have to worry about it. You just need to worry about getting better." The girl sat down next to him with a bright smile, pulling the basket over to her along with a stone grinder.

* * *

He had smelled it. That unmistakable sweet aroma. 

'Kagome . . . did you come to see me? Have you changed your mind?' He leapt quickly from tree branch to tree branch, following the delicate aroma. 'I don't care if you haven't! I have to see you again!'

He skidded to a halt in a clearing and got down on all fours, sniffing the ground where the scent was strongest. 'She was just here! Where could she've gone?!'

Inuyasha stood up again, cursing his timing. She had left again. She had left him alone again with only her sweet scent to tease him. "Damn it, Kagome! Are you doing this to me on purpose?!" He punched the ground, eyes shut, trying to make the torment end.

"Inuyasha! What are ye doing out here by yerself?" Kaede walked into the clearing, armed with her usual bow and arrow in case the hanyou had run into trouble.

"Kaede . . ." He stood up, hiding his bloody hand in his sleeve. "It's nothing. Just go home, old hag. I don't need you to babysit me."

"Inuyasha . . . we've all been worried sick about ye . . . please come back . . ."

"You don't understand anything, Kaede." The hanyou looked away from her.

"I understand this, ungrateful dog. If ye continue to punish yerself like this, ye'll never see Kagome in this world again." Kaede said with narrowed eyes and a look of authority about her.

Inuyasha gave her an extremely cold glare. "You weren't there, Kaede. You don't know anything." 'You don't know about how she betrayed me. How she hates me. How she's probably laughing at me for my stupidity.'

"If ye truly want to rid yer mind of Kagome forever, then why are ye so intent on keeping her in? Either go search for the lass or return home and live yer life again, like ye did after ye awoke from my sister's spell."

The hanyou growled as he thought it over, picturing Kagome's chipper face smiling at him the way she used to and the fluttering of his heart when she did so. 'I can't just forget her like that . . . I can never forget her . . .'

"Currently, there is a young boy in much greater need than ye are. I shall return to attend to him and will await yer return, Inuyasha." With that, Kaede left the hanyou alone in the clearing to go over his thoughts.

He growled after her, feeling incredibly abandoned. He could either try to track down Kagome's scent, or return back to the village and try to live his life without her. But how could he do that? Everything reminded him of her. And if he went after her . . . it would just wind up the same way as last time . . . He put off a disgusted look at the thought of him finding her with yet another child.

'I refuse to go after her anymore. I won't be made a fool of.'

* * *

Tasuke gently wiped the sweat off the now sleeping boy's forehead. It had taken a lot of convincing on her part and a lot of medicine, but he had finally given in to her request to sleep. 

Kaede walked in, concern back on her old face."How is he, Tasuke?"

"He's doing alright, I guess. Though it does seem like he's having quite the nightmare . . ." She looked down at Jiko, tossing and turning restlessly.

The old woman sat beside the girl, tending to the fire. "Ye should get some sleep, child. Ye have been up all night caring for the lad."

The girl noticed the stern look on her mentor's face and couldn't help but wonder if it had something to do with Inuyasha. "How . . . is he?"

"The boy?" Kaede gave her a slightly confused look.

Tasuke shook her head. "No. Inuyasha."

The old woman's face contorted into a look of pity. "He is not doing well at all . . . the poor hanyou is at his wit's end in grief . . ."

The girl frowned, then looked back at Jiko. 'It has to be more than a coincidence that Inuyasha started to act this way when this boy arrived . . . I can feel it . . . They're connected some way . . . but the only question is . . . how?'

* * *

_Jiko's Dream_

_He was walking alone in complete darkness, not seeming to go anywhere, but feeling the need to move to keep it from consuming him. He just kept walking, never seeing any change, never moving at all it seemed._

_Out of nowhere, a dim light appeared before him on the ground, and he immediately ran for it, coming upon a dark lake reflecting the non existent light. Falling onto his knees beside it, he saw his reflection in the murky depths, his messy red hair and dirty face staring back at him._

_Not seeing any purpose in merely looking at himself, he stood, but as soon as he did so, a small ripple echoed across the water, making his figure abstract._

_After a while, it stopped, and it wasn't **his** reflection staring back at him anymore._

_An evil smirk crossed its face, narrowing its fiery eyes._

_Jiko didn't know why, but he was incredibly scared of this person, turning and running away as fast as his legs could carry him._

_The figure suddenly rose out of the water, drawing all the darkness into an evil cloud around him, two huge, glowing red eyes staring after the boy._

_It growled, then began to slowly move after him, consuming everything in its wake._

_Jiko put every ounce of energy into his running, whimpering as he chanced a look over his shoulder every now and then. It seemed that no matter how fast he ran, the creature was always gaining on him, a dark and evil laugh echoing from it._

_"MOMMY!!!" The hanyou couldn't prevent it. Tears started streaming down his cheeks out of complete and utter fear. He wanted nothing more than for his mother to hold him close to her right now. To protect him from the inescapable creature that now tormented him._

_As if in answer to a prayer, her figure appeared before him, her back to him._

_"Ji . . . ko . . ." Her voice seemed like a small echo, barely audible even to his keen hearing._

_"MOMMY!!! HELP ME!!!" He prayed that she would be able to stop it, looking over his shoulder at the now much larger darkness._

_"Ji . . . ko . . ."_

_Jiko ran up to her, scared out of his mind and forcing her to face him, hugging her tightly._

_"Ji . . . . . . ko . . . . . ."_

_The hanyou opened his eyes only to find that he now had a face full of blood. "Mommy?"He took a few steps back, shaking in horror._

_Her entire front was covered in blood. A deep wound gushing it out from her stomach, claw marks coming from it up through her shoulder. Her eyes were glazed over, and a trickle of drool dribbled down her chin._

_"Jiko . . ." she whispered, reaching a hand out for him. "What have you done to me?"_

_The hanyou was completely paralyzed in fear, watching in horror as solids escaped the wound with the blood, her bones evident inside of her._

_"What have you . . ." She reached him, running her bloody hand down his face, then pulling him towards her in a sickening embrace._

_He simply whimpered as she stroked the back of his head gently, the blood from her wound entering his nose and mouth, making him want to retch._

_"I . . . love . . . you . . ." She held him slightly away from her, then looked up at the approaching darkness. "Run . . ."_

_His mother threw him behind her, holding out her arms as if to stop the creature from harming her son._

_Jiko simply lay there, whimpering as he watched the darkness come ever closer to her. "MOMMY!!!"_

_"Run!"_

_Jiko simply stared at her for a second before he got a determined look on his face. He stood up and started to run again, doing his best to keep from looking back._

_The growling of the darkness formed itself into words as it finally reached his mother. "Foolish miko . . ."_

_A choked scream sounded from behind him. Tears made clean trails through the blood on his face, and he did the one thing he hoped he wouldn't do._

_He looked back._

_Another scream was heard, but this one wasn't from his mother. It was from him. "MOMMY!!!!!"_

_The darkness had produced from itself deadly claws that had forced themselves through his mother's throat. Her limp body dangled from them, the last of her blood spattering vividly on the dark floor._

_Within seconds, the creature had completely engulfed the gruesome sight, chasing him again._

_Screaming at the top of his lungs in agony, Jiko continued to run from the darkness._

_She was gone now. He was alone. No one could protect him anymore._

_Wait._

_There was someone . . ._

_The only person who had ever treated him like an equal besides his mother._

_Inuyasha._

_"INUYASHA!!! HELP ME!!!"_

* * *

"What the hell is it, you old hag?" Inuyasha followed Tasuke into Kaede's hut, annoyed by her incredibly urgent request. He looked curiously at the dark haired boy who was sweating profusely. "And who the hell is he?" 

Kagome's scent still tickled at his nose, but he ignored it as best he could.

"He is the reason we called ye here." Kaede stood up from her spot near him. "Are ye acquainted?"

"Never met him. So what?"

"Inuyasha . . . help . . ." Jiko whimpered, tossing slightly.

"He's been calling you for a while now." Tasuke looked up at the confused hanyou. "He must know you somehow."

Inuyasha's gold eyes narrowed. What was thegirl jabbering about? He didn't know who this human was! "I'm telling you. I've never met him!"

* * *

_Inuyasha suddenly appeared in front of him, this time facing him and in perfect health._

_"Inuyasha!!! Please help me!!!"_

_"Get behind me, kid. I'll take care of this lowly demon." He cracked his knuckles, flexing his claws._

_Jiko nodded and ran behind him, still whimpering._

_The darkness soon caught up, the red eyes glaring down at Inuyasha. "Move, hanyou."_

_"You ain't touching the kid, you sad excuse for a demon!"_

_"Then die." A double edged sword suddenly shot through the darkness._

_"Get back!" Inuyasha pushed Jiko behind him just as the blade pierced through his skull._

_"INUYASHA!!!" The silver haired hanyou merely stood there, eyes wide, and the younger one began to cry his eyes out, ignoring the fact that the blade was an inch from his own forehead._

_"Run . . . Ji . . . ko . . ." He fell to his knees, his eyes rolled into the back of his head. "Run . . ."_

_He fell forward, the hilt of the sword making a sickening scraping sound against the cold floor._

_"No . . . Inuyasha . . ." The hanyou whimpered. Everyone that could've possibly helped him was now gone._

_Out of the midst of the blackness came a man. The man from the reflection. His hair and eyes resembled his own, red as fire, his lips curled into an evil sneer._

_Walking up to the lifeless corpse, he grabbed the sword, ripping it out of his head and sending more blood everywhere._

_Jiko merely continued to whimper, seeing no point in trying to run. 'Mommy . . . Inuyasha . . . you're both . . . dead . . .'_

_The youkai licked some of the blood off the sword, smirking at the hanyou's fear. "You're next, boy."_

_Jiko couldn't stop. He simply stared at the body, hoping against hope that he would come back to life and save him._

_The demon held the blade over his head, blood dripping onto the floor in sickening splats. "Die."_

_The hanyou closed his eyes, ready to accept his fate, when he was suddenly overcome with a desire to live. His eyes glowed red under his eyelids, and fire began to radiate from his body._

_"I . . . will . . . avenge . . . them . . ."_

It was at that moment that he awoke, his eyes wide. He covered his sweaty face with his hands, trying to erase the horrible memory from his mind.

"It was just a dream . . ." He looked through the cracks between his fingers at the light pouring in from the open flap of a door. 'It's morning . . .'

His eyes widened considerably as he remembered his fate as a hanyou, and he looked around at the staring women.

"You're a . . . you're a . . ." The girl he had thought was his mother scooted back just a bit. "Hanyou . . ."

It was then that Jiko knew it was all over for him.

* * *

**...shudders... Gruesome gore . . . ...huggles Jiko, wailing... You poor, poor child!!! How could such an awful fate befall you!?!**

**And here's ...sniff... the shout-outs . . . ...blows nose...**

**animefreak321654 (first reviewer!!!): You probably think I'm even eviler now, don't you?**

**OniyuriGaaru: Poor you. Well . . . at least try to put a few more comments this time. Not that I'm complaining or anything. Just a review is good enough for me.**

**Mage of Swords: Did anyone ever tell you that you are a genius? ...huggles Jiko till he's purple... Poor Jiko baby!!! And yes, I think it's cute that he's human too. And what excellent timing too! But I guess that's all my doing, huh?**

**Mizukithepanda: I shall tell you this much about Jiko's Daddy. He is a fire youkai. That is all. You'll eventually figger out his name, but that's for later . . . thanks for reviewing though!**

**kutiekerrie01: He will. Don't worry. Now the only question is when. ...grins...**

**sweet-girl8270: Well . . . not quite . . . even though now he and Jiko are in the same hut, probably staring at each other. They'll get back together soon enough, but not until quite a bit more evilness has passed. ...grins evilly and holds up the peace sign...**

**Maboroshi Kaji: Fire illusion, huh? Well there's something pretty ironic about your name, I'll tell you that much. And, unfortunatly, it wasn't Inu, but Tasuke. I don't know why, but you just can't help but like that girl. But Inu still gets to see him! I hope at least that makes you happy!**

**Kira/Sarah: Yeppers! You were right! Go Kira/Sarah! Go Kira/Sarah! (Try saying THAT three times fast!)**

**ShadyLady06: Tonka! (That means thank you in my own little world) That's why I had him how I had him! Thanks for sympathizing too. Some people just don't know the pressure.**

**brigurl: Now hopefully, you didn't have to wait too long. So . . . does it being a booshi chapter a good thing . . . or a bad thing? You use it to insult people and then you use it to describe my fic? ...doesn't know how to feel...**

**x-ikaru-x: Thanks. I try. I personally don't really like those kinda stories either . . . unless of course I want something happy to cheer me up after writing a chappy like this.**

**EternalMist: Ya know . . . that's a GOOD question . . . where IS Kirara? Ummm . . . let's just say that she's with Shippo out doing something for a week or two . . . how's that sound?**

**Leona: ...sighs sadly, then turns evil glare on Inu... Let's hope he does, or I'll make him and Jiko switch places! And yes . . . it is sad . . . he should've figgered out what happened before he did all that . . .**

**xblackheartx: Now you probably feel even worse for the poor guy . . . ...wails and huggles Jiko... POOR, POOR JIKO!!!**

**luvinukagome: No! Don't cry! ...gives you tissue... Me know it evil! Me know! Just don't cry! You make me cry now!...starts crying...**

**Sanci: Yes. I'm answering you anyway. That would be cruel and unusual if I didn't! And yes, poor Inu-baby's gonna go crazy! At least know that ...shifty eyes, then whispers... you didn't hear this from me . . . but Inu's gonna get to kill that bastard eventually . . . ...end shifty eyes... But he did find him, and that's all good! Now we just have to see if and when he finds equally poor Kagome. Thanks for being my beta-reader and all that though! Mucho gracious!**

**foxgirl: No need to be so demanding! lol j/k! I can understand perfectly how you feel! Me want them be better! ...starts beating fists on keyboard... But you'll have to wait and endure the evilness a while longer. Me promise on my honor as an author that they WILL be better!**

**NeverEndingHeartbreak: ME TOO!!! He's so cute when he's sad! Wit de dwoopy eaws and de wittle pout and de ...is hit over the head with a stick... Alright! Alright! Enough baby talk from Over! But I think that's kinda funny that you had a nightmare about this wittle ficcy! Tell me, was it anything like Jiko's? Cause if it was, I'll shut up. Right. Now. I'd probably be put in a mental institution if I had that kind of dream. Then again . . . I've had incredibly gross dreams before . . .**

**femalewolfdemon8 or child-of-darkness-and-night: Yay! Now we can all kill him! ...grabs nearest bag of pens... (Don't ask)**

**And that's all of ya!**

**Ciao, minna-chan!**

**Over**


	7. Desire

**I don't know why, but for some reason or other, ff . net isn't letting me use certain combinations of characters. It won't let me put an exclamation mark and a question mark next to each other, so I'm just going to stick with the exclamation mark they put there instead.**

**Disclaimer: Let's see . . . how long has it been? Three weeks? How the heck do you think I'd get the rights in a measly three weeks!**

**_Note: In repentance of not being able to update cause of my trip to DC, I have made this chapter an official 4225 words (not counting the shout outs or Sanci's changes). That is twice what I like to put up, so ya'll are lucky._**

* * *

Jiko sat, completely paralyzed in fear as he watched the women stare dumbfoundedly at him. 

It took a few minutes for him to get the feeling back in his body, and when it did, he immediately started shaking. "I-I'm sorry . . . f-for not . . . for not t-telling you . . ."

They simply continued to stare at him, and not being able to stand the confused and shocked faces anymore, he stood up and ran out of the hut, out of the village, and as far as he could go to get out of sight until he came to the Goshinboku and slid down the trunk, breathing heavily. 'T-They saw me . . .'

"He was a hanyou the whole time?" Kaede looked after him with the shock still evident on her face. "And I could not sense it?"

"I'm going after him, Lady Kaede!" Tasuke stood, her hand clenched in determination. "I don't care what he is!"

After merely looking at her for a moment, the old hag nodded, and the girl ran out to find him.

The old woman sighed and looked over her shoulder at the other hanyou that was currently sleeping somewhat noisily. 'This explains why he did not recognize him . . .'

Inuyasha rolled over in his sleep, ears twitching every now and then as the miko watched him with a strange look on her face.

* * *

Jiko caught her scent as she made her way up the hill towards where he was. In a desperate attempt to escape her and the undoubtable string of insults she would throw at him, he leapt up into the tree onto one of the higher branches. 

"Hey! Where'd you go!" Tasuke reached the edge of the woods and looked around. "Please don't go off into the woods alone!"

Hearing none of the nasty comments he had expected, the hanyou crept out of the dying foliage to gaze down on her, his messy hair falling down into his face. He glared up at it, then with his good arm, tried to wipe it away. This caused him to lose his balance, and he toppled out of the tree, right onto his butt next to her. "Owwww!"

"There you are!" Tasuke squatted down beside him. "What'd you take off for?"

"You mean . . ." Jiko gave her a very timid look. "You _aren't_ going to hurt me?"

"Why would I do something like that!" The girl seemed quite taken aback by his statement. "One of my mommy and daddy's best friend's is a hanyou!"

"T-They are?" The hanyou boy stood up, slowly, still worried that she might suddenly lash out at him.

Tasuke put on a big grin and nodded. "Inuyasha is one of the nicest people I know!" She put a hand beside her mouth and leaned in closer to whisper as if she was afraid that the inu hanyou's keen senses would pick up her voice. "Though he is a little strange . . ."

'Inuyasha!' Jiko's whole countenence lit up."He's here?"

"So you _do_ know him!" The girl smiled even more. "I thought as much!"

'I'm safe here . . . I'm actually safe . . .' He couldn't help but smile in return.

* * *

Darkness. 

Everywhere he looked was complete and utter darkness.

He growled at it, as if in a challenge, and the darkness accepted, reaching out its icy fingers and wrapping around him in an embrace close to that of death.

A pain unlike anything he had ever experienced suddenly blazed through his forehead.

He couldn't help but scream, his mouth opening and the air escaping, but no sound leaving him as he gaped at the blood that suddenly poured down his face.

Just as he thought the pain had subsided, he suffered another blow. This one felt like something was being ripped right out of his skull.

He screamed again, his voice having less effect than before. All of his breath was already gone, and his mouth was already wide.

He stumbled forward, the new wave of blood coating him in its warmth, cutting out the icy darkness.

Closing his eyes, he blindly continued to fumble his way forward, groping around for some landmark he recognized while blocking out the ceaseless pain.

"Wake up . . ."

A juvenille voice called through all the blackness and agony to reach his delicate ears, seemingly entering his body and touching his soul.

It was a girl's voice. One he recognized but had never heard. It was so full of purity and innocence that it seemed like an angel's breath to him.

"Inuyasha . . . open your eyes . . ."

He trusted this voice, and he obeyed, opening his eyes to an incredibly blinding light. If anything, this was the exact opposite of what it had been before.

He looked around, searching for the cheribin that had brought him out of the endless darkness, but all he found was endless white . . . and a speck of red in the distance . . .

"Inuyasha . . ."

'Who are you!' Said hanyou started looked around harder, annoyed that he couldn't see this person that one couldn't help but wish to see.

"Go to her . . ."

'To her?'

"See her . . ."

He growled, annoyed, then looked around yet again, this time searching for this 'her.' He caught sight of the red speck again, and the slight scent of death reached his delicate nose. His eyes widened slightly before he took off towards it.

What he came across was completely opposite of what he had thought would be something that he'd want to see. He completely forgot about his pain as he merely stood with wide eyes, staring at the mass of black, white, and red.

He wanted to speak, but his voice was still gone, and his body trembled so much that he doubted that he could anyway.

Instead, he walked towards it, reaching out with a shaking hand. With each inch he crossed, the crimson around the thing increased, staining the white its color, reaching out in all directions.

Finally, he touched it, and everything went blood red.

He swallowed hard, feeling his lips loosen and his voice return, as he gently rolled Kagome over.

He looked down at her tainted face, seeing how vividly the pale skin stood out from its bloody surroundings. Her throat had a gaping hole in it, exposing the crushed windpipe and the torn vocal cords.

For the first time in his life, Inuyasha had to actually fight and fight hard not to express his sadness as he stared at her. "She wasn't .. . she wasn't allowed . . . to scream . . . Kagome . . ."

Further down, the same type of hole went through her stomach, claw marks extending from there up through her shoulder.

His face suddenly sporting no emotion at all, he ever so gently picked her up in his arms, burying his face into her dampened hair. "Kagome . . . I'm sorry . . . that I wasn't there to protect you . . . I'm so sorry . . ."

The weight of all the emotions he was feeling conflicted one another, not allowing a single one to control his actions.

"Sad, isn't it?"

The voice this time sounded from behind him, and he turned to face it, but yet again, no one was there. He felt angered that this voice was teasing him so when his love lay dead in his arms. He had to take his rage out somewhere, and an invisible person was better than himself. "Are you the one that did this to her!"

"Yes. Yes I did."

"Then come out you coward!"

"She could've escaped him, that she could, but I made her stay. Isn't it such a heartbreaker?"

Inuyasha's anger grew more and more every second, his claws digging unknowingly into the miko's flesh.

"You shouldn't get so mad. It's what she wanted, after all. She'd've died anyday for me."

"What're you!" He stopped abruptly in the middle of his sentence and growled loudly, angered even more for no apparent reason. He needed to kill something, and he needed to kill something now.

"Tsk tsk, little hanyou. Look what you're doing now."

Inuyasha looked down at his claws, making little trickles of blood run down his love's arms. He quickly pulled then away, and was stricken by fear of what he had been doing. He had let his anger get such a hold on him that he had been hurting the one that he had sworn to protect.

Silently, he layed her back down on the blood red floor and stood, wide eyed, as this time, fear engulfed him.

"You shouldn't get so angry next time. Such things often happen when one lets go of their rage."

He shook his head furiously, then turned and ran. He couldn't stand to see her like that anymore, dead because of him.

Because of _**his**_ stupidity. Because he had always been such a fool as to drive her away.

"Now this looks familiar." The girl's voice now seemed to be whispering into his ear. "Isn't this how you always acted when you were frightened as a child?"

He growled at the thing again, picking up his pace to try and escape it.

"Maybe your rage and sadness and fear can all be taken out in a well deserved cry into your mother's arms."

"What?"

Before the voice answered, however, he felt the blood from his wounds start to retreat back inside of him. His clothes soon felt incredibly loose as he felt his hair shorten and the deep rasping of his breathing heighten.

"What are you doing to me!" he said in a small squeak of a voice, now running out of the endless red into a serene orchard, one that he recognized.

He stopped running to look around at his new surroundings, his nose tickled by the sweet aromas.

"Inuyasha . . ." A woman's sweet voice reached his ears, sending them to perk straight up. It couldn't be . . .

He slowly turned to find himself face to face with his mother.

"Inuyasha . . . come here." She gave him a genuine smile and offered her arms in a hug.

The child-like emotions surging through his mind suddenly overpowered him as he ran into her waiting embrace, warm tears threatening to fall from his blood shot eyes.

"Mother . . . she's dead . . . she's dead, and there's nothing I can do . . ."

"Whose dead?"

Inuyasha gasped slightly in surprise. It wasn't his mother's voice anymore . . . it was . . .

"Who?"

He looked up into Kagome's eyes, shining with motherly empathy.

"You're alive?" He choked back the tears, staring up at her in disbelief.

She gave him a sad smile. "Of course I'm alive. You just had a bad dream is all."

"B-But I . . ."

"Shhhhhh . . ." She brought him close to her again, and he breathed in her comforting scent as he relaxed in her embrace. "It's okay . . . Mommy's here for you . . ."

'Mommy?' Inuyasha looked back up at her, but this time, a bit of messy red hair fell in front of his eyes. He blinked at it, then tried to twitch his ears, but found them to be pointy little appendages on the sides of his head. 'What the hell did that girl do to me!'

"Something wrong?"

"Oh . . . no. Nothing."

Kagome smiled at him and gently kissed him on the forehead. "Go back to sleep, Jiko. I'll even sing for you if you want."

'Jiko? That girl stuck me in his body!'

* * *

Kagome literally collapsed from exhaustion as she reached the edge of the woods outside the village. She merely lay there for a bit, breathing heavily so that she was prepared for a battle should one be necessary. 

'Jiko . . . I must . . . save him . . .' She picked the upper half of her body up and began to slowly crawl her way up the hill, watching the lazy smoke of a cooking fire meander its way slowly into the sky. 'At least . . . he's still safe . . . from _him_ . . .'

Her stomach growled noisily as the scent of roasting meat, most likely from the very fire she had been watching. She smiled a bit, then quickened her four-legged pace. Halfway up, she stood and began to run towards the gate, practically shedding tears of joy that her son was still safe and that she'd finally get a decent meal.

She stopped dead in her tracks, wide eyed, staring out at where the village once stood.

Everything had been burned to the ground, still smoldering and incredibly blackened, the once human bodies half out of what was once a window. Every single ounce of earth was painted with blood and every ashen creature was the same crimson, making them stand out vividly in the blackness. To make matters worse, every cow, chicken, pig, and human's head had been cut off, frozen in a look of terror, and layed around the entrance, every one of their faces maimed.

Kagome gasped and ran through them, keeping her eyes closed as she ran for the hut she had stayed in, praying that Jiko had somehow remained safe.

When she finally opened her eyes to it, all she found was what looked like a singe on the earth. The flames would have been extremely hot, eating every bit of it . . . with her hanyou son undoubtedly still inside . . .

But there was still hope. If Jiko was the son of the very fire youkai that had done this, he would undoubtedly be able to survive an attack like this. Or maybe . . . that's what he had wanted . . .

Thoughts of what could've happened flashed through her mind. Pictures of Jiko trapped inside the burning hut, coughing and calling her name. Pictures of his father renching him out of the still burning reckage by his hair. Pictures of him slaying all the villagers in front of his eyes. Pictures of his torture. Pictures of his death. Pictures of his blood.

She fell to her knees and buried her face in her hands, crying like there was no tomorrow. In her petty attempts to regain her own happiness, she had fed her son to the wolves. He was gone forever, and there was nothing she could do about it.

"Hello there, _mate_." A snide voice from behind her brought her out of her self-hate, turning around and coming face to face with none other than Jiko's father himself. There was an air of anger around him, one that she did not understand.

"You . . ." She glared at him, tears pouring out of her eyes. "You monster . . ."

He smirked. "Such a pity, wench. You could've stayed and protected him." He took a few steps forward, raising bloody claws.(1)

Kagome suddenly stopped glaring, and her face instead formed into one of great sadness, the tears still falling. "Go ahead. Kill me. You've taken everything away from me now."

She spread her arms out, letting him have full access to her. "I don't care how you do it. Rape me. Torture me. It doesn't matter."

The youkai raised a smug eyebrow. "You're willing to give up everything, eh?"

"I have nothing left to have taken away. First you stole Inuyasha and now Jiko. You can't touch me anymore."

"Oh really?" His smirk grew as he laughed slightly. "So who is this Inuyasha person? Was he your lover before I took you?"

Her eyes widened greatly.

"I see. So it wasn't me you were running from after all." He gently fingered the sword at his belt. "Then maybe I should rid the world of another you love."

"No!" She jumped forward, trying to somehow stop him, but before she got near, he drew his sword, slashing her across her stomach and sending her into a cringing ball of pain.

"Foolish girl."

"Please . . . t-take me instead . . ." she sputtered as she gasped for air.

The demon sheathed his sword, giving Kagome a strange look.

"I-I don't care w-what it means for me . . . you c-can even . . . can even take me as y-your m-mate . . . forever . . . just please . . ."

"Heh." He full out grinned. "All this for a man you haven't seen in six years. It's unfortunate for you that I already took out all my needs on the foolish wenches of this here village. I didn't spare a one of them. Not even the little girls that screamed their hearts out. In fact, I did them first while the others watched. It was indeed fun."

Kagome gasped. "You . . . _you_ . . ."

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have a certain. . ." He took a few sniffs of her, searching for any trace of a man that could be this 'Inuyasha.' " . . . hanyou, in fact, to kill."

He turned and walked off, kicking a few heads out of the way as he went.

'Inuyasha...!' Kagome remained in the tight ball, crying into herself. She trully _had_ lost everything now. He was going to murder Inuyasha and everyone near him the same way.

* * *

_(1): Yes, I know. Jiko's not dead, but his daddy's playing on that to mess with Kagome more. Just adding this so I don't confuse anyone._

* * *

After he was sure that Kagome was asleep, Inuyasha got up and ran outside, trying to find the damned girl that had stuck him in Jiko's body. "Where are you! Show yourself you coward!"

All that reached his ears was a slight giggling, and a white ball bounced by. Soon after came a little girl with auburn hair and emerald green eyes in a short light red kimono.

"Are you the one?" he seethed.

She grabbed the ball and looked up at him with wide eyes, then her face cracked into a smile.

"Answer me!" he said even louder, his eyes narrowing menacingly

"You're so silly." Her voice was the exact same as the one that had been tormenting him, and Inuyasha began to growl.

"I'm gonna kill you . . ."

"You can't kill me. As long as you're around, I'll be too. Even Kagome tried to kill me, but she also failed. Such sadness it is . . . why would anyone want to kill me?" she asked innocently with a grin.

The hanyou kept growling. "Change me back to normal, wench."

"Normal? You want to be you again?"

"What do you think!"

"Anger will only make you hurt her again. That's all it'll do."

Inuyasha stopped growling abruptly and turned to look back at the run down hut that she was in. "Just turn me back to normal so I can talk to her . . ."

"Doing so will help me, that it will. I'll happily do it!" She smiled widely again, and the hanyou felt himself start to grow again, back to his original size and into his own body.

As soon as the transformation was complete, he turned towards the hut again and pulled back the flap as he ran in. "Kagome . . ." She was still asleep on her futon.

He crouched beside her, a small smile on his face. So what if she hated him now? That would never change the fact that he loved her. Even if she _was_ someone else's . . . He brushed a couple of stray bangs away.

She stirred slightly, and her eyes cracked open. "Ji . . . ko?" She looked up at him, and her eyes widened. "Inuyasha?"

He smiled at her as she sat up, just staring at him. "Hey . . ."

Before another word was spoken, she had flung herself at him, hugging him tightly and crying her eyes out. "Inuyasha, I'm so sorry . . . I don't . . . I'd never _hate_ you . . . I'm sorry that I . . . that I never told you . . ."

Inuyasha's heart lightened considerable as he gently hugged her back, resisting the urge to pour out all his emotions on her at once. "Kagome . . . I'm . . . glad . . ."

She looked up at him, a smile shining through the pearly tears. "Inuyasha . . . I . . . I love you too . . ." With that hanging raw in the air, she started to lean in towards him, closing her eyes. He did the same, and just as he felt the much wanted brush of her lips against his, it was gone.

His eyes shot open, only to find himself back in the field of red.

"That's enough fantasy for you." The girl appeared behind him, and he turned, growling his head off at her.

"You're dead, girl!"

She waggled a finger at him. "Don't you get it, little hanyou? You can't kill me. Besides, you won't remember that meeting anyway."

Inuyasha's eyes widened a fraction of an inch. "I won't?"

"It's just a dream, silly."

"Just a . . . dream?" He didn't want to believe it, even if he knew it deep in his heart.

"Isn't it obvious? You sure are strange, little hanyou."

"Will you stop calling me that! You're the little one around here!"

"No, I'm not. I've been around since the beginning of time. This is just one of my forms."

"Who the heck are you!"

"Hmmmmm . . ." She put a finger on her chin thoughtfully. After a few seconds, she smiled at him again. "I don't know."

Inuyasha practically fell over. "You don't know your own name!"

"I have no name. I don't know who I am. I know _what_ I am, but that's not what you asked, now is it?" she sighed.

"Then _what_ are you?" he said through his teeth.

"Ganmou, vouloir, begehren." She started to slowly walk towards him, growing taller with every step, maturing with every breath. "Appetitio, deseo, bramare."

"In a language I can understand, please!"

She stopped, and the hanyou blinked, staring at her new appearance. It seemed now that she was a drop dead beauty. In fact, that was an understatement. Her deep, reddish-brown hair fell in little curls just below her shoulders. Her absolutely dazzling green eyes blazed with a determined fire.Every single curve of her body moved just the right way as she started to approach him again.

"Desire . . ." She brushed a hand over his cheek and pressed her lips to his in an incredibly soft kiss.

Inuyasha's eyes opened wide, and he pushed away. "What the hell are you . . . why did you . . ." He continued to mouth speechlessly at her as she gave him a small smile.

"Of course . . . what Kagome desires . . . is you . . . consider that from her."

"Ka . . ." His eyes flashed. "You know where she is!"

"She is currently in the village you found her in . . . in a great deal of pain, I might add."

"What! What happened to her!"

"It doesn't matter . . . you won't remember anyway . . ."

"I don't care! Tell me anyway!"

"Such a silly hanyou you are . . . perhaps you should forget right now . . ." She held up her hand so that the palm was facing him, and a strong aura started rescinating between them.

"I want to remember!" he yelled with desperation.

"You can't. If you remember this dream, all that she has worked for will be destroyed."

"What?"

"Should you remember this dream, what you experienced will come to pass."

"Then at least let me remember that she loves me!"

The aura dissapated for a second as the woman thought it over. "I suppose that I can at least grant you that, but I must give you another truth."

"Another truth?"

The aura came back again, this time even stronger than it had been before. The blood red of the floor seemed to lift off the ground, staining the very air red. It took everything in Inuyasha's power to keep from being blown away.

"Know this." The woman's voice had split, and her eyes glowed red. "All that Kagome desires now is the safety of her son. For this reason, you must not learn the truth. Should you learn of it, it will cause her suffering. Should the boy learn of it, it shall cause even more suffering. Should both of you learn of it . . ." She clenched her fist, and the aura was silent and still for a moment. "It will destroy her. Should either learn, the other will as well, and her death would be inevitable."

In a blinding flash of white and red light, she was gone, and Inuyasha sat straight up on the floor, sweat trickling down his face.

"Inuyasha?" An old woman's voice reached his ears, and he turned to come face to face with Kaede.

"Kaede . . ." His eyes were very wide, scared almost.

"What has happened? Ye look like ye just saw a ghost."

"It's . . . it's nothing . . ." He wiped the sweat off his forehead with the sleeve of his haori. 'At least I know that she still loves me. Even if . . .' That was when a very familiar scent reached his nose. He slowly brought his arm down and looked over the old hag's shoulder.

On the other end of the small hut, Tasuke was talking and giggling with a red haired boy with pointy ears and flaming red eyes.

"J-Jiko?" Inuyasha almost whispered, staring wide eyed at him.

* * *

**Ooooooo . . . suspence! Now raise your hand if you want to kill me! ...looks nervously around at all the raised hands... Woah! Woah! Woah! My death only results in eternal torture for you guys! And it was longer so BE HAPPY!**

**Now for me to share my happiness with you:**

**TheLightintheDarkness (first reviewer): Is that enough of a 'good part' for ya? Now you're probably gonna tell me the exact same thing. lol.**

**animefreak321654: ...huggles Jiko... I don't wanna hurt the poor guy! It's just . . . It's just . . . I have to! For the plot of the story! If I could, I'd take him as my own and spoil him rotten! But at least he's happy now, right?**

**Mage of Swords: Sure you can. I'll even hold him for ya. And I hope this chappy answered your little question about that dream. In case you didn't notice, Inu's dream was his version of Jiko-baby's dream. Hope you like where this is going!**

**Maboroshi Kaji: Well . . . I can't really give you a hint seeing as you can never really tell whose gonna read what, but I hope this chapter answered a little bit. The only good thing is that she can't really suffer anymore, can she? Well . . . I guess I shouldn't say that . . . I have a knack for making things all the more worse.**

**sweet-girl8270: If he didn't then, he does now!**

**child-of-darkness-and-night: Me too! ...huggles the poor boy to death...**

**Inugirl540: Soon, my friend. Soon. And if it makes you feel better, after I finish these shout outs, I'll finish up HtG.**

**unheard screams: I WANT A HAPPY ENDING TOO! Which means you'll get it, but I have to stop being evil first, now don't I? You'll get it, just keep reading.**

**Leona: Whadaya know? They did!**

**Neko-Chick: Isn't it wonderful? Another cliffy!**

**KiKi: Yay! If you like this whole angsty biz, you should check out Not Too Late by SilverTailz. That is one of the BEST stories I have EVER read!**

**OniyuriGaaru: Calm down. It will. I promise. And . . . well . . . I doubt any half decent author would be so cruel as to kill poor Jiko, but if I was extremely evil, I might kill off a character. But generally, I don't do something like that. So just forget I said anything, and yes, it's a happy ending.**

**anime girl: ...nervous laugh... And I did it again, didn't I? My friend, Sanci told me it left her twitching at the end! Hope I don't get killed over it!**

**luvinukagome: Well . . . I guess this chappy is a _little_ happier. I . . . guess . . . just no cwying! Me awways get sad when me make peopwe cwy . . . ...takes tissue and dabs eyes...**

**Kira/Sarah: NOOOOOO! ME NO KILL INU-BABY! ...huggles him... Sry I forgot to e-mail ya. I've been a little busy what with school and S.O. and Japanese. It's hard enough keeping up with the demand for more stories!**

**Sanci: You're right. That IS what everyone wants. Of course, you'll be the first to know. ...wink wink...  
Inu: So what's gonna happen next chapter?  
Me: Well, I can't tell you. That would ruin it for everybody!  
Inu: Screw everybody! I wanna know!  
Me: Actually . . . I haven't decided what's gonna happen next chappy . . . though I do believe that you'll have a run in with a certain bastard . . .  
Inu: Can I kill him!  
Me: DO YOU HONESTLY THINK I'D LET YOU KILL HIM IN CHAPTER SEVEN!  
Inu: Yes.  
Me: You're hopeless.**

**j baker: Let me guess. You wanna kill him even more now, right? Bastard . . . raping those poor girls . . . and yes, they'll get back together eventually, but that's for a later date.**

**Ryuu no Taiyo: You're crying too? Man, I'm sure making a lot of people cry . . .**

**Radde: Well, I would've gotten it out on my usual Saturday if it wasn't for the fact that I had a week long trip to DC and then the start of my crammed week. My scheldule's gonna be rather tight for the next few . . . months . . ., but I'll try to keep the updates a comin'.**

**Amanda Trinh: At least he knows she loves him, right? Even if he doesn't know the truth (and probably doesn't want to really know it anymore), he still knows that at least. I just hope that Kagome will learn that Jiko's still alive.**

**I think that's all for shout-outs. So until next time!**

**Ja ne!**

**Over-chan**


	8. Explanations

**And now out of popular demand, I present to you:**

**Explanation of Inu's dream:**

_Darkness._

_Everywhere he looked was complete and utter darkness._

_He growled at it, as if in a challenge, and the darkness accepted, reaching out its icy fingers and wrapping around him in an embrace close to that of death._

Obviously, the whole thing starts out where Inu can't see anything. Bing bing bing! Just like little Jiko's dream. So yeah, he doesn't like it, and growls at it, and the darkness suddenly makes him freeze to death. Personally, I think it sounds better in fancy talk.

Then, pain blazes through his forehead and feels like it's being ripped out of the side of his head. Yet again, a connection with Jiko's dream. Which means, Inu-baby's dream starts the way Jiko's ends, except Inu can't see what the heck is going on and Jiko's not there.

"_Wake up . . ."_

_A juvenile voice called through all the blackness and agony to reach his delicate ears, seemingly entering his body and touching his soul._

Inu closed his eyes a little while before all this happened, and out of nowhere this little girl's voice calls out to him. Desire.

Seeing as it's such a sweet voice and it affects him in weird ways, he listens, and all the blackness has magically turned into whiteness. So now Inu-baby's sittin' in a big space of whiteness with nothin' in view but this tiny red speck that he really doesn't give a damn about at this point.

Of course, naturally the hanyou will want to know who the heck this girl is. He looks left, looks right, no one's there. Big surprise. Then she tells him to 'go to her' and not seeing anything better to do, Inu does just that.

_What he came across was completely opposite of what he had thought would be something that he'd want to see. He completely forgot about his pain as he merely stood with wide eyes, staring at the mass of black, white, and red._

_He wanted to speak, but his voice was still gone, and his body trembled so much that he doubted that he could anyway._

What Inu comes across is none other than Kagome after Jiko's daddy finished with her. However, when he gets closer to her, the blood from her wounds seems to stain the whiteness the color of blood, and when he touches her, the whole place goes crimson.

It's at this point as he looks over her wounds that he's overcome by so many emotions that he can't express any of them, so he just picks her up and buries his face in her hair.

Now I shall explain the literal translations of everything Desire says:

"Sad, isn't it?"

Inu: "Are you the one that did this to her!"

"Yes. Yes I did." (It was her _desires_ that did this to her.)

Inu: "Then come out you coward!"

"She could've escaped him, that she could, but I made her stay. Isn't it such a heartbreaker?" (She could've escaped Jiko's daddy, but her _desire_ to protect Jiko made her stay. Isn't it sad?)

"You shouldn't get so mad. It's what she wanted, after all. She'd've died anyday for me." (You shouldn't get mad about it. She wanted to protect Jiko after all. She'd've died anyday to protect him.)

Inu: "What're you- !"

"Tsk tsk, little hanyou. Look what you're doing now." (Geez, now you're hurting Kagome cause you're so pissed.)

Of course, Inu realizes what he's doin' and freaks out, gently setting Kagome down on the ground and just staring at her.

"You shouldn't get so angry next time. Such things often happen when one lets go of their rage." (People do that kind of thing a lot when they get too angry.)

Inu, getting absolutely terrified by what he had done, suddenly can't take it anymore and runs away from her body, Desire follows him, saying what I think are rather straightforward lines about how he did that a lot when he was a kid. Then she suggests that he should go cry into his mother's arms.

_Before the voice answered, however, he felt the blood from his wounds start to retreat back inside of him. His clothes soon felt incredibly loose as he felt his hair shorten and the deep rasping of his breathing heighten._

"_What are you doing to me!" he said in a small squeak of a voice, now running out of the endless red into a serene orchard, one that he recognized._

…gasp… IT'S BABY INU! …screams, running over to him and huggling him…

Anyway, what's goin' on is that Desire has changed Inu back into a kid again, sending him back to the place he grew up as a kid. In fact, his mom is there! And boy does Inu-baby like that! So he runs over to her, practically on the verge of tears and starts saying that Kagome's dead over and over again, though more like "She's dead . . . She's dead and there's nothing I can do . . ."

_Inuyasha gasped slightly in surprise. It wasn't his mother's voice anymore . . . it was . . ._

"_Who?"_

_He looked up into Kagome's eyes, shining with motherly empathy._

So while Inu was hugging Izayoi, she magically transformed into Kagome, isn't it sweet? Kagome hugging baby Inu . . .

And they're now in an abandoned hut somewhere in the red plain, by the way. Just wanna help paint the picture.

'_Mommy?' Inuyasha looked back up at her, but this time, a bit of messy red hair fell in front of his eyes. He blinked at it, then tried to twitch his ears, but found them to be point little appendages on the sides of his head. 'What the hell did that girl do to me!'_

And now Inu's in Jiko's body too! Can you just imagine how weird that'd feel for poor Inu-baby? Here's the woman he loves treating him like her son!

So anyway, being his somewhat mother now, Kagome goes on her way putting him to bed, and then there's a little scene change where we see what's happened to Kag. Evil conniving bastard Jiko's daddy!

Then we go back to Inu's dream, which everyone obviously missed part of, seeing as dream Kag's now asleep. Inu's pretty damn pissed at Desire at this point, and after making sure that Kag's asleep, he runs outside to find her.

_After he was sure that Kagome was asleep, Inuyasha got up and ran outside, trying to find the damned girl that had stuck him in Jiko's body. "Where are you! Show yourself you coward!"_

_All that reached his ears was a slight giggling, and a white ball bounced by. Soon after came a little girl with auburn hair and emerald green eyes in a short light red kimono._

And so Inu-baby has finally laid eyes on Desire. Sure she looks innocent enough, but I doubt innocence can stop a vengeful hanyou like Inuyasha. This is especially true after he hears her talk and finds out that she is indeed the same girl that had been tormenting him. Most of her lines are straightforward at this point, but there is one that is kinda confusing.

"You can't kill me. As long as you're around, I'll be too. Even Kagome tried to kill me, but she also failed. Such sadness it is . . . why would anyone want to kill me?" (You can't kill your _desires_. As long as you (or anyone else for that matter) live, you'll still have _desire_. Even Kagome tried to rid herself of her _desires_ for you, but she couldn't do that either. It's so sad . . . why would anyone want to kill their _desires_?)

Confusing much? Anyway, she and Inu have a little bit of dialogue in which Inu-baby tells her that he wants to be himself again so that he can talk to Kagome in his normal form. Enter another confusing line by Desire.

"Doing so will help me, that it will. I'll happily do it!" (Changing you back to normal will help soothe her overwhelming _desires_. I'll happily do it!)

For some reason, I have her talking like Kenshin through this whole thing. I'm surprised I didn't have her say 'Oro?' once or twice.

Anyway, enter fluff. I hope nobody needs an explanation for that, but if you do, just e-mail me or chat with me on AIM (Overobsessy) or YIM (inuyashafreak9889), and I'll explain.

So yeah, on to the confusingness. After Kagome and Inuyasha exchange a little half kiss, Kagome magically disappears, and Inu-baby finds himself back in the red plain. I actually think that Desire's line is pretty funny here.

"_That's enough fantasy for you."_

And then we all get to enjoy a lot more confusing dialogue.

Inu: "You're dead, girl!"

"Don't you get it, little hanyou? You can't kill me. Besides, you won't remember that meeting anyway." (Don't you get it already? You can't kill your _desires_. Besides, this is just a dream, and you won't remember what happened anyway.)

Inu: "I won't?"

"It's just a dream, silly."

Inu: "Just a . . . dream?"

"Isn't it obvious? You sure are strange, little hanyou."

"Will you stop calling me that! You're the little one around here!"

"No, I'm not. I've been around since the beginning of time. This is just one of my forms." (I'm not really a little kid. _Desire's _been around as long as there have been people around. I'm just in the form of innocence right now.)

Inu: "Who the heck are you!"

"Hmmmmm . . . I don't know." (This one's hard to make a literal translation for. So let's just say that Desire really isn't a person, but an idea, so therefore, she really has no name.)

Inu: "You don't know your own name!"

"I have no name. I don't know who I am. I know _what_ I am, but that's not what you asked, now is it?" (Yet again, she's an idea, not a person. Ideas fall under whats instead of whos.)

Inu: "Then _what_ are you?"

"_Ganmou, vouloir, begehren." She started to slowly walk towards him, growing taller with every step, maturing with every breath. "Appetitio, deseo, bramare."_

"_In a language I can understand, please!"_

_She stopped, and the hanyou blinked, staring at her new appearance. It seemed now that she was a drop dead beauty. In fact, that was an understatement. Her deep, reddish-brown hair fell in little curls just below her shoulders. Her absolutely dazzling green eyes blazed with a determined fire. Every single curve of her body moved just the right way as she started to approach him again._

"_Desire . . ." She brushed a hand over his cheek and pressed her lips to his in an incredibly soft kiss._

Basically what she says in her first line there is "Desire, desire, desire, desire, desire, desire." Of course, it's not what she says that matters, it's the fact that she's changing into a much more adult form. But because of what she is, she's extremely beautiful. After all, when desire's not innocent, it's beautiful, or . . . ugly . . . in some cases . . . but that's for another form.

Some people might be confused about the kiss, but she explains her motives in her next line.

"_Of course . . . what Kagome desires . . . is you . . . consider that from her."_

She only kissed him cause that is one of the things that Kagome truly desires with all her heart. That and her want for Jiko's safety.

Then comes yet more dialogue in which Desire states where Kagome is and that she's hurt pretty damn badly, but that she really didn't need to tell him cause he wouldn't remember anyway. Inu, of course, wants to remember, and he also wants to know what the hell happened to her.

"_I want to remember!" he yelled with desperation._

"_You can't. If you remember this dream, all that she has worked for will be destroyed."_

"_What?"_

"_Should you remember this dream, what you experienced will come to pass."_

Inu really needs to learn to heed warnings when they're given to him. But basically what Desire says here is "Should you remember this dream, Kagome's secret will be tossed out into the open and what you dreamt will come to pass." In other words, little Jiko's dream'd become a reality.

So Inuyasha tries a different tactic, asking her to at least let him remember that Kagome loves him. After considering this for a bit, Desire agrees, but says that she must tell him something else. All the while, she's creating this huge aura with her hand that is even removing the red from the floor and making it hover in the air!

"_Know this." The woman's voice had split, and her eyes glowed red. "All that Kagome desires now is the safety of her son. For this reason, you must not learn the truth. Should you learn of it, it will cause her suffering. Should the boy learn of it, it shall cause even more suffering. Should both of you learn of it . . ." She clenched her fist, and the aura was silent and still for a moment. "It will destroy her. Should either learn, the other will as well, and her death would be inevitable."_

So Desire goes all freaky on us, and basically says that if Inuyasha or Jiko find out the truth, Kagome will suffer because of it and then die. She also makes a point of somewhat telling Inu-baby to stay away from her as 'all that Kagome desires now is the safety of her son.' In other words, Kagome has put off her desire for Inuyasha out of concern for little Jiko.

And with that, there is a blinding flash of white and red, and Inuyasha wakes up.

**Hope this helped.**

**THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE OUT LATER TODAY**


	9. Demon's Fire

**Okay, so maybe that was a long day. But yeah, I was having issues with the layout of this chapter, and am still not completely satisfied, but I think it's been in the works way too long already, and I think you guys can handle it.**

**I would also like to reccomend reading the co-write my friend, JulyFlame, somewhat pressured me into writing with her, _Cat's Claws, Dog's Tale_. It's about Toran (panther tribe, remember?) and Sesshoumaru's relations before the war. Inspired off of the way they acted like bitter ex-lovers through the whole arc.**

**Also, check out the important note at the bottom for some input into how this turns out.**

**Disclaimer: The people who own Inuyasha have deadlines that I could never meet. End of story.**

* * *

Jiko panted for more air as he ran up the hill, knowing that his pursuer was getting closer by the second. In an attempt to get them off his tail, he skidded and changed directions, hearing cloth whoosh through the air where he had just been. 

'That was close,' he thought as he looked over his shoulder, seeing that his shadow was already gone.

A scream could be heard nearby, and the hanyou pressed on, knowing that he could escape . . .

Tasuke pounced on him, sending him rolling a ways. "Tag! You're it!"

Jiko stood up again, baring his fangs in a playful grin as he prepared himself to go after her when Inuyasha leapt over his head. "Come and get me, little man!"

"You asked for it!" He leapt up into the air, leaving Tasuke behind as he chased after the much faster hanyou, breathing hard as he attempted to keep up.

The girl, knowing she was outmatched, smiled slightly as she watched them, still attempting to catch her breath from her earlier run from Inuyasha.

"Having trouble keeping up, child?" Kaede walked up the hill, bow in hand like always as she stood next to the girl. "I'm not surprised. Ye are merely human."

The girl let out the last of her breath in one, quick sigh. "Yeah, but I manage." She stretched, twitching her nose slightly to bring the feeling back into it.

"Ye should head inside. 'Tis getting chilly out." The wise old miko gave her a knowing look. "Ye'll get sick if ye remain out in this weather."

"But I wanna stay out with Jiko and Inuyasha!" Tasuke whined, uncrossing her arms to make it appear like she wasn't cold at all.

"Lady Kaede's right, you should head inside." Sango walked up next to the girl as well, carrying a sleeping Mujaki in her arms.

"But Mom . . ." Tasuke looked up at her with big, sad puppy eyes, feeling quite ganged up on.

"No buts, Tasuke. You'll get sick if you stay out here." Sango reached down and took her daughter's hand.

"Mom . . ."

"Gotcha!" Jiko yelled as he pounced on Inuyasha's head. "Ha ha! You're it!"

"Mom . . . can't I stay for just a little bit longer? I wanna play with Inuyasha while he's feeling better . . ."

"Tasuke, no. You can't stay out here."

"Listen to yer mother, child."

"Tasuke, what's wrong?" Jiko ran up to the three humans, his breath slightly heavy. "Don't you wanna play anymore?"

"Jiko . . ." Sango walked over to him and crouched down, looking him in the eye, seeing a familiarity she had almost forgotten. "You have to remember Tasuke's only human. She can't stay out here in bad weather like you can."

The little hanyou's face fell. "I understand . . ." A snowflake dropped from the white sky, landing on his nose as he looked down at the ground.

"Come on, Tasuke." Sango tugged at her daughter's hand, attempting to get her to return to their hut.

A loud, catlike hiss filled the air, and everyone looked up into the air as a cream and black cat descended, a young man riding its back.

"Shippo! Ye have finally returned!" Kaede called as she walked over to their landing sight. "Did you fare well?"

The young man got off the cat's back, his red ponytail swishing into place behind his back as he looked at the old miko with sad, green eyes. "I couldn't find Kagome anywhere . . . I'm sorry, Lady Kaede."

Both Kaede's and Sango's faces dropped, before the demon slayer got a small smile to reassure the kitsune. "It's alright. Inuyasha didn't do any better."

As if on cue, the hanyou walked up to the others, wondering why no one was running from him anymore. "Someone say my name?"

"Inuyasha!" Shippo called, his eyes wide at not having seen him for the past six years.

"Shippo?" The dog blinked, having expected the kit not to have changed at all. "That's you?"

The fox swished his tail into view, the thing now much longer and less bushy. "Who else do you know that has a tail like this?"

"Woah . . ." He blinked again. "You grew . . ."

The fox laughed, then suddenly noticed the boy hiding behind his friend's legs. He crouched down, staring into the red eyes that housed total fear. "And who're you? I haven't seen you around here before."

In response, Jiko clutched tighter to Inuyasha's pants, shaking slightly as he gazed into the eyes of the demon before him. "J-Jiko," he stuttered.

"I'm Shippo. Nice to meet you." He extended a hand, then sniffed lightly. "Oh. I see. You're a hanyou too, are you?"

Jiko slowly nodded, gazing up at Inuyasha for help before Tasuke pushed him out. "Come on, silly! He's not gonna hurt you!"

The hanyou stumbled forward for a bit, and then straightened, giving Shippo a nervous smile before looking over at the now tiny cat perched on his shoulder. 'So there are good demons too?'

* * *

Deep in the surrounding forest, another demon was having his own problems, growling as he took another desperate sniff. "Where the hell is that boy?" 

He looked around, smelling him everywhere, but with his limited nose, he couldn't pinpoint exactly where he had been.

"Damnit to hell!" he yelled, scaring a few birds out of the nearby trees, before turning burning red eyes out through the trees, the light out beyond the trunks revealing the edge of the forest. He could smell the humans there, the laughs of children and chuckles of mothers, all of which made him cringe in hatred.

Humans had such pointless lives.

He sniffed the air again, the boy's smell slowly starting to fade. It was aggravating for him to not have the keen nose of other demons, leaving him in the dust in any ability to track. He couldn't even smell the humans he could hear, even so close as they were.

His instincts began to burn with rage at the thought that a mere five-year-old had eluded him. Fire. That's what he needed now. The blaze of a burning fire, destroying everything in its path, leaving nothing but ash and his hatred of his half blood son to smolder in the charred ground.

The demon slowly lifted his arms, prepared to incinerate the trees, when suddenly, a voice caught his attention from a not too far off path.

"Kirara, sometimes I wonder . . ."

The slight smell of a youkai tickled his nose, and he could feel his insides prick with interest as he crouched down to the ground, a teenage red-head kitsune coming into view with a small two-tailed demon cat on his shoulder.

"Maybe she's not in this world at all . . . maybe she went back through the well . . ."

Nothing about his offspring. Hinote growled with impatience, ready to kill.

He stood back up, the murderous intent in his eyes illuminated as they began to glow red . . .

* * *

"Inuyasha?" Jiko looked up at the his dog-eared friend, walking beside him and Tasuke as they made their way back to Kaede's hut. "Where did Shippo and the kitty go?" 

"How should I know?" Inuyasha shrugged, not really paying attention as he crossed his arms over his chest to keep his hands warm. "The twerp just said he wanted to stretch his legs."

Jiko gave an apprehensive look back at the forest, remembering the fall that had broken his arm and the time it took to heal afterwards. His limb was still fragile, and he had been sure to stray far from the woods' boundaries since.

"Tasuke!" Sango called back from in front of the trio, nearing her hut as she walked alongside Kaede with Mujaki in her arms. "Hurry up and come inside! Mujaki's starting to get cold!" As if to prove her point, the sparce snowflakes began to call their friends, the clouds opening up to release their pent-up stores.

"Coming, Mom!" The girl started running towards her mother, but soon slowed to a stop, looking around with a curious look on her face. "Hey, is something burning?"

Jiko blinked at her for a moment, then lifted his nose slightly to sniff the chilled air, smelling the familiar scent of ash and smoke, but in a much larger degree than he even had smelled before. He looked over at the other hanyou, who had stopped dead in his tracks only seconds before, ears alert and nose twitching. "It's coming from the forest . . ."

Inuyasha's mind immediately snapped on his friends, walking through those very woods that were now on fire. But he knew they would be alright. Kirara could fly after all and both of them had fire abilities that would spare them the heat, but . . .

His eyes widened as the one thing that truly mattered came to his mind, causing him to turn and bound into the smoke covered forest. 'The well!'

He couldn't lose it. He just couldn't lose it. It was the only thing he had left that he could use to convince Kagome to return to him. The well that would take her to her family and finally persuade her to just _stay_ with him.

His stride became almost desperate, his hair flying out behind him in sheets. He _had_ to save it.

"Inuyasha!" Jiko called after him, now seeing the flames rising in the distance. "Inuyasha! Come back!"

The small fire hanyou danced in place, not being able to stand still for fear. His friend, his mentor, the only person that could possibly understand what he was going through was lost in the quickly rising blaze.

"INUYASHA!" he called again, the smoke reaching his nose and almost making him gag.

"Tasuke! Jiko! Quickly! Inside! Don't breathe in any more of the smoke!" Sango quickly ran up to the two to herd them into her house, Mujaki already coughing against her chest. "Lady Kaede, you should go inside too!"

"Nay." The old woman shook her head defiantly, turning and walking as fast as her arthritus-ridden legs could carry her. "I must warn the villagers."

Miroku dashed through the flap of his door, sensing the commotion. "Lady Kaede, go and get to safety. I'll go to warn everyone."

"Houshi-sama!" Sango ran up to her husband, towing her daughter behind her.

He gave her a smile at her calling him by the same old name, regardless of their ties, then put a hand on the small of her back to usher her into the hut. "Be safe, Sango." He kissed her ear gently, then turned, running quickly for the bell tower.

"Mommy!" Tasuke tugged impatiently at her mother's sleeve, trying to bring her attention back to the matter at hand. "Mommy! Jiko's gone! He ran off into the forest!"

"What!" The former exterminator turned quickly, seeing the retreating back of the five-year-old disappearing in the smoke. "No! Jiko! Come back!"

* * *

The forest was so thick with smoke by the time Inuyasha had reached the well that he was forced to cover his delicate nose, the smoke pouring down the open well like dry ice. The hanyou quickly removed his haori, spreading it over the passageway's wooden surface. 

It was safe now. He could breathe easy.

He coughed slightly, remembering that now _he_ had to find shelter. The fire was quickly spreading around the clearing, eating the trees alive. The air was getting harder and harder to breathe by the second, and he knew that in the center of this blaze, he wouldn't last long.

"Inuyasha!"

The hanyou turned at the sound of his name, coming from the path he had earlier tread. His eyes widened as recognition dawned on him.

And there the boy was, coughing as he made his way into the clearing, covered from head to toe in black soot.

"Baka!" Inuyasha quickly ran over to the boy, pulling him away from the burning trees. "You shouldn't be out here! It's dangerous!"

"The fire doesn't hurt me," Jiko replied as he too covered his face to avoid the stench of ash. "I'm a fire demon, remember?"

"I don't care." The dog hurriedly pulled him to the well, seeing the grass begin to burn as well, inching closer to their heels. "I ain't letting you stay out there any longer. Kagome'd-" He cut himself off, pulling aside his haori cover for the passageway through time, and looking into its clearing depths. "I want you to wait in here, okay?"

"But Inuyasha-"

"No buts, Jiko. Get inside." With that, he pushed the boy over the edge, quickly covering the well after him as he disappeared from view. The hanyou turned back around, assessing his increasingly hopeless situation. The flames were rising by the second, making an impenetrable wall of fire, and Inuyasha didn't have his fireproof haori to help him this time.

"Kirara! Shippo!" he yelled into the sky, hoping that they would hear him. He wasn't going to go down the well. He couldn't go down the well. "Can you guys hear me!"

No response. He'd have to get closer to the edge. They were undoubtedly already outside the forest.

Inuyasha quickly ran through the clearing, his feet being burned by the fire but the rest of him fine. The bottom half of his outfit was enough to keep him from being hurt too badly as he ran through the still low fire, but as soon as he reached the trees, he could smell his flesh burning.

He covered his eyes with his sleeves to prevent the flying embers to reach them, squinting to try to see the burning trees as his ears flattened to his head, the fur already singed.

'Where the hell could those guys have run off to?' He leapt over a fallen log, landing cautiously in a patch of damp forest where he could access his surroundings, finding the way out.

Blinking the smoke from his eyes, he gazed in all directions, trying to find a landmark he recognized.

What he saw instead were glowing red eyes . . .

* * *

**Kinda short, I know, but oh well.**

**IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!**

**As of right about now in the story, I am being faced with a decision. I'd make it on my own, but I don't really want to upset people. So I'm wondering about the ending of this little ficcy. So here are the options:**

**Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy Ending: _Everything's nice and happy and the way it should be. Bad guys die. Good guys live. Pasts are forgotten, etc. The original planned ending, but then again, it just seems very . . . happy . . ._**

**Bittersweet Ending: _Everyone's happy at the end of the story, but there's a whole left in everyone's life. Minimal character death. This one gets Over's vote of approval._**

**Myeh Ending: _Character development maximum. Probably one of the angstier ones. Still minimal character death. Over also wouldn't mind writing this one._**

**Tragic Ending: _The sad and unforgettable ending. More character death. Less likely to have any kind of follow-up besides a fluffy one-shot. Over kinda likes the idea, but doesn't know how well readers would take it._**

**Evil Ending: _The ending everyone dreads. Maximum or close to it character death, and the bad guy gets away. Over definitely only put this on here to have every side of the spectrum._**

**Just tell me in your review what you think about it. Thank you.**

**And as for shout-outs, I'm completely confused on the site's policy on it right now, so I'm going to play it safe until I figure it out for sure for sure. Getting this story or my account deleted would definitely not end well. Until I find out, I'll just respond to reviews by replying.**


	10. Separation

**I'm kinda disappointed I got so few reviews for the last chapter . . . has my taking so long really turned so many people off to me?**

**Anyway, keeping in mind that I asked some of the people I go to school with, etc. what ending they wanted, the votes for the ending stand thus:**

**Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy Ending - 4  
****Bittersweet Ending - 9  
****Myeh Ending - 7  
****Tragic Ending - 5  
****Evil Ending – 2**

**So as per right now, the bittersweet ending is winning. More info on voting will follow after the story.**

**Disclaimer: All I own in the Inuyasha universe is the OCs I have created. Oh yeah, I also own a few movies, a few mangas, a few action figures, a few DVDs, and a few plushies.**

* * *

Jiko curled himself up at the bottom of the well, eyes and nose burning from the smoke surrounding him. He didn't dare get up. Inuyasha had ordered him to stay down here till he came back for him, and he would do whatever his mentor told him to, no matter the risk. 

'What will I do if he forgets about me and doesn't come back?' The little hanyou opened his eyes slightly, seeing the air begin to clear before them. 'What if I stay down here until I die . . .?'

He shook his head slightly, sitting up in the darkness and clutching his stinging arm, still tender from its injury. No. He knew Inuyasha would come for him. He was his dear friend that had gone through all of the same torments and all of the same pain. He wouldn't abandon him like his mother did . . .

His mother . . .

How long had it been now?

Looking up into the darkness, he attempted to count the weeks that had passed.

Five, maybe six at the most . . .

Instantly, his eyes misted, the memory so fresh and so painful that he had to bite back tears to keep his promise.

He never thought that his mother would abandon him . . . and he simply couldn't believe that Inuyasha would do the same, but the burning ache in his heart whispered the opposite as the truth. That Inuyasha too would abandon him and leave him to die at the bottom of this old well.

"Don't worry, Mom! Just let me do this real quick, and I'll head out!"

Jiko instantly curled into a corner at the sound of the unfamiliar voice, eyes wide. Light had begun to poor into the abyss in torrents at the creak of old wood, the same voice grunting as if doing something that required a great effort.

Such as ripping the well apart . . .

'Mommy! Inuyasha! Help me!'

Jiko covered his head as the light shone in at full force, suddenly blocked as a figure stooped over to peer inside.

The person gasped, then turned, yelling at the top of his lungs. "MOM! MOM! COME QUICK! THERE'S A PERSON IN THE WELL!"

* * *

Inuyasha let a low growl pass through his teeth as he felt the flames rise on either side of him, begging to lick at his flesh and turn him into their lifeblood. "Who the hell are you?" 

The eyes returned his growl, leaping off their branch in the Goshinboku and landing ten feet in front of him. "I should ask you that, boy. No fool would stay in this forest else they be killed by my hellfire."

"So it is you, then." Another growl brushed past Inuyasha's lips as the flames parted slightly, giving him a view of the arsonist himself, as well as letting the eyes find their way to him. "Why the sudden need to destroy this entire forest, huh?"

"My motives are none of your concern," The man speaking let his eyes return to their natural state, brushing a hand casually through his fire red hair, sparks flying from their tips in a dazzling swirl of bright orange. "Though I would like to know something before my flames eat you alive."

"Oh? And what would that be?" Inuyasha said, mockingly, sizing up the demon before him with the utmost loathing.

"The location of a certain half slime child . . ."

Inuyasha's insides clenched in hatred at the youkai's name for a hanyou, and instantly, he vowed never to reveal anything about Jiko to him. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about."

"Don't play dumb." Fire flashed in the man's eyes, and a flaming tree branch crashed down onto Inuyasha's shoulder, easily burning through his shirt to eat at his bare skin. "The damn kid's scent is all over this hellish place! Tell me where he is!"

The hanyou quickly threw the branch off of him, ignoring the pain of his blistering skin. "I told you, demon. I don't know who the hell you're talking about. There's no half-breed kids around here from what I've seen. Besides, even if I did know, there's no way in hell I'd tell some random nameless demon."

"You want to know my name?" The fire curled suddenly in a giant arch, wrapping into a frame for the demon as his hair rose softly, his blood red eyes slitting as his mouth curled into an evil smirk. "I am Hinote of the hellfire, and the boy I am looking for is named Jiko."

'Jiko? So I was right not to say anything.' Inuyasha let his growl rumble deeper, ears folding back on his head. "And why do you need to see this 'Jiko' anyway?"

The smirk grew wider. "I believe it is a father's right to see his own offspring . . ."

'Father . . .?' Almost instantly it seemed, Inuyasha could see the similarities. The same fire red, messy hair. The same eyes that housed the same fire. The same face even, though for what Inuyasha had seen, Jiko's face could never possibly contort into such an evil countenance. It was obvious that they were related. But was it possible that Kagome could fall in love with this man? "Maybe it is, but I don't know how burning down the forest will endear you to him."

"Tell me where he is, and I will stop the fire and let you go." The fire, as if it were some all-consuming liquid, splashed back down in between them, covering Inuyasha in a barrage of sparks, the ground beneath him already dry from the heat, allowing the fire to encroach upon him. "Refuse another time, and I will have no choice but to kill you."

"Really now?" Inuyasha quickly leapt up into the air, feeling the fire lick at his skin as he landed just in front of the still protected Goshinboku. "I'd like to see you _try_ to kill me!"

He charged forward, the demon before him just now turning to see his attack. This was his perfect opportunity to end all of this in one bone-crushing blow.

But before he could land a punch, he stopped . . . his mind reminiscing suddenly on Kagome.

Kagome . . .

She . . . loved this man . . .

She would never forgive him if he killed this pathetic excuse for a demon, and that would be even worse than losing the well.

She'd never come back if he laid a finger on him . . .

A swift punch to his gut brought Inuyasha back to reality, sending him flying back into the trunk of the sacred tree, right where he had been pinned before Kagome had come across time to find him. He crumpled at the bottom, his focus distracted by the unbearable truth that Kagome loved . . .

Another blow, this time to the face, and Inuyasha was on the ground, his ears being filled with sparks and his nose complaining loudly about the smoke and ash.

"Heh. Pathetic." Hinote drew his sword, raising it over his head in preparation for the final blow, but then . . .

"Inuyasha!"

The demon froze, recognizing the name. Was the _other_ object of that human's affection around here someplace as well? He couldn't smell a damned thing now, but if someone was calling for him . . .

Hinote looked back at the nuisance on the ground, the demon boy that had been so easily defeated. He couldn't possibly be this Inuyasha person. He was too strong for a hanyou and too obviously full blooded.

"It's your lucky day, little man." The demon sheathed his sword, allowing the flames to part for him. "I won't kill you today, but should I see you again, you can be sure that I will."

Inuyasha lifted his head softly from the ground, ears back to their pinned state and his sleeve instantly rising to recover his nose. "Damn . . . you . . ."

"Consider yourself fortunate. No one has survived me before." He turned then, slowly, and made his way through the hellfire, disappearing at last into the burning remains of the forest.

* * *

Water . . . 

The cool liquid slipped gently through Kagome's cracked lips, awaking her from her long sleep.

"At last, you're awake," a middle-aged woman smiled down at her, holding a small cup of water in her hand, the other one being used to raise her head.

"Who . . ." Kagome looked around as best she could, her stiff limbs making it difficult to move at all. "Where . . ."

"In my home. You're safe now." The woman gently set her head back down, placing the water carefully beside her. "My husband and I found you badly injured in the village over yonder."

The memories suddenly came flooding back into Kagome's consciousness. Jiko was . . .

Tears began slipping from her eyes, flooding down to wet the futon beneath her.

The woman, instead of questioning her, gave her a sad smile. "I understand, dear. T'was a terrible massacre."

Kagome closed her eyes, remembering her son. Remembering everything about him that she had loved so dearly. His smile. His laugh. The way his hair always was so perfectly messy. The way his eyes were so full of life and trust. The way he always seemed to understand . . .

"Jiko . . ."

The woman's eyes grew sadder, motherly empathy shining there. "Was he someone important to you, dear?"

Kagome raised a stiff hand to her face, rubbing at her eyes even though she knew it was futile. "He was my . . ." Her voice came so rough she could barely recognize herself. "My son . . ."

"There, there, dear. We all lose at least one child . . ." The woman took an old cloth out and began wiping the tears off Kagome's face. "Though sometimes Ijust wish all the bandits and demons would go rot in hell where they belong and leave all of us poor mothers alone."

"It's my fault though . . . I left him all alone . . ." Kagome harshly refused the woman's kind hand as she covered her face with her own. "I left him alone to pursue my own damn happiness . . ."

The older woman was silent, understanding the miko's want for it.

'Inuyasha . . .' Thoughts of him swarmed through her mind, not allowing her the peace she so desired. 'I can't search for him anymore . . . if I'm ever going to regain my life . . . I have to . . . forget about him . . .'

**

* * *

Keep reading. **

**The fun isn't over yet.**

**I present to you, Over's first Omake theatre!**

**

* * *

**

Omake Theatre

_(What Over's Mom said should happen after Over asked her which ending she wanted.)_

Tears filled Kagome's eyes as she looked over at Jiko, seeing him now as if he were a ghost. "J-Jiko . . .?"

The boy turned slowly, practically trembling at hearing his mother's voice after such a long time. "M-Mommy?"

"Jiko!" Kagome ran across the field, despite her injuries, taking her one and only son into her arms and holding him so close that it was as if they had become one. "Jiko . . ."

"So I see you found your son."

The two looked behind them, seeing none other than Hinote standing there, sword drawn with a smirk on his face, ready to kill.

Kagome smiled, still holding her son closely as the tears flowed freely from her eyes. "You know what? I have to thank you."

The demon instantly lost his superior air, sweatdropping slightly. "Wh-What?"

"If you hadn't done what you did to me, I would never have this wonderful child." She rubbed her cheek in his hair as he looked up at her curiously. "I don't care anymore."

With that, she turned around to face Inuyasha. "So screw off." She flipped him off over her shoulder as she walked over to the flustered hanyou.

"WHAT!" Hinote dropped his sword, holding his head in confusion. "WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!"

His utter confusion caused him to stumble away into a road, not paying attention to anything.

HONK! HONK!

The demon looked up in time to see the glaring headlights before he was dead, crushed beneath a semi.

**Over: …annoyed look up at Mom… Mom, that was the stupidest ending I've ever written.**

**Mom: It was so sweet though! And Inuyasha didn't have to bloody his hands.**

**Over: …looks over what was written… And since when are there semis in Feudal Japan?**

**Mom: Um . . .**

**Over: Exactly.**

**

* * *

And there you have it. As I like to say, two cliffys are better than one, but still, I wish I could've thought of how to write out another Jiko part, but that'll have to wait until the next installment. **

**So now onto the ways of voting this time around:**

**This time the choices are based on who you wouldn't mind dying. I ask that you choose at the very least two, mostly because I know that if I just say at least one, Jiko's Dad (or now that he's got a name, Hinote) will be killed by everyone.**

**So here are the choices:**

**Hinote  
****Jiko  
****Inuyasha  
****Kagome  
All of the Sango x Miroku family . . .**

**I'm not including Kaede because she's so close to death anyway . . . I might turn it into a chappy even!**

**I thank you in advance for your input, and I hope you don't have to wait too long for the next chappy!**


	11. One Big Surprise

**The votes stand thus:**

**Happy, Happy, Happy, etc. Ending – 19  
****Bittersweet Ending – 26  
****Myeh Ending – 26  
****Tragic Ending – 28  
****Evil Ending – 21**

**Tragic Ending is now in the lead, and as far as character death goes, Hinote got voted for everytime. ...sweatdrop...**

**_BEFORE YOU VOTE THIS TIME, I IMPLORE YOU ALL TO READ MY FRIEND'S FANFIC OF THIS FIC CALLED 'UNWANTED OUTING.' IT GIVES A NEW PERSPECTIVE TO HOW HINOTE CAN BE VIEWED AND IS RATHER AMUSING._**

**Disclaimer: I own Hinote, Jiko, Tasuke, and Mujaki. I own the woman I shall probably name in this chapter (seeing as I haven't written anything yet), and I own anyone else that I have the joy to call an OC. That is all I own, and all I ever hope to own.**

* * *

Jiko had never really been the type to enjoy a stranger's company, never been the type to trust humans, and especially never been the type to walk into said strange humans' house and be treated like some amazing child sent from above. 

In fact, he would never have left the well if it hadn't been for the teenage boy now staring at him from the end of the rather tall table, sitting on some wooden contraption that he had referred to as a 'chair.'

Now that Jiko thought about it, he didn't even know what half the things he had seen so far were. The doors had weird metal objects covering them as if they were mere blocks of wood fastened tight to the wall. The windows had some strange clear covering. The walls were elaborately painted with a repeating pattern of flowers. Even the floor was unusual, not made of wood or dirt.

Where a fire usually would have been etched into the ground, there was instead this high table, and a large opening led into what appeared to be another, larger room. The objects in there seemed even stranger, and Jiko made a mental note to stay away from that room.

"Would you like something to eat, dear?"

Jiko jumped, clutching to the bottom of his own wooden 'chair.' It was that woman again. She had an incredibly motherly air about her, but it seemed very . . . _strained_ . . . as if she was forcing the kind smile to stay on her face before she accidentally jumped the gun and pounced him with questions.

"N-No . . . I'm fine . . ." The little hanyou boy knew he must look incredibly fearful right now, and he knew that this expression made him incredibly vulnerable. What he wouldn't give for his mother to be here now . . .

"What about you, Souta?" The woman's eyes focused now on her offspring.

"Some tea would be nice." The boy never took his eyes off of the strange child from the Feudal Era. "Maybe coffee if we have any."

'Coffee?' Jiko looked up to lock eyes with the teenager, a slight hint of curiosity in his fire red orbs.

"I guess you must be really confused, huh?" The older boy gave him a soft, encouraging smile. "There's a lot of things in this world you probably don't know about. Kagome must not have mentioned any of it to you."

Mother and son exchanged a short glance, broken off almost instantly as the mother lifted the kettle from the stove, ready to pour it into the waiting mug.

"You . . . you know Mommy?"

A loud crash echoed off the fading walls as Kagome's mom dropped the kettle onto the floor, denting the cheap metal and spraying hot water all over the floor. Some had even spilt on her legs, but she didn't care; her mind was still trying to grasp what she had just heard.

Souta, on the other hand, had managed to keep some sense about him, even though his voice had almost completely vanished. "Nee-chan . . . is your mother . . .?"

"Nee-chan?" It was Jiko's turn to try to conceive this sudden information. So this was his mother's family? Come to think of it, she hadn't ever mentioned her family. He had just always thought that they had died in some war or by some disease like the relatives of so many other people he had met. "You're . . . Mommy's little brother?"

"And you're her son . . ." Souta stood, walking over to him and crouching in front of his chair, staring into the hanyou's eyes. "Yet you . . . don't look like Inuyasha at all . . ."

"You know Inuyasha too?" Jiko jumped off the chair to take a hold of the teenager's shoulders. "Do you know where he is? He isn't hurt is he?"

Kagome's mother, finally coming back to her senses, touched her cheek softly. "We . . . haven't seen Inuyasha in six years . . ."

"But . . ." Jiko was beginning to become frantic. "I just saw him . . . he had pushed me into the well and told me to wait there until he came back for me."

"He pushed you into the well?" Souta immediately recognized that something was definitely wrong.

"I followed him into the fire, and he pushed me into the well to keep me safe."

"Fire?" Kagome's mom walked over and crouched next to the boy as well, no longer being able to hide her worry. "Was Kagome caught in it, too?"

"I don't know where Mommy is . . . she left me in the village a few weeks ago, and I . . . I went to go find her . . . but I never could . . ."

"So she's . . ." Tears welled up in the middle-aged woman's eyes, the woman that Jiko now fully recognized as his grandmother. "She's still lost in that world . . ."

"That world? What are you talking about?"

Souta let out a slow sigh, hissing through his teeth. "I guess she probably never explained it to you if she didn't even mention us . . ." The boy stood, sitting down in another chair and leaning back, trying to think of how best to explain it. He decided it would be best to start from the beginning . . .

* * *

Inuyasha's eyes fluttered open as the sunlight suddenly broke through to land on them. His head was killing him, almost literally, and the light was sharpening the pain to a pitch that it was like someone sharpening a knife on his brain. 

He growled softly, the vibration somehow soothing his head for a moment, just enough for him to be able to assess his surroundings.

He was sitting in the middle of a black ashen field, charred trees and soot everywhere. His mind was functioning well enough to recognize this as his forest, the place he had gone for refuge ever since his first run-in with Kikyo that rainy and moonless night. It was gone now . . . and the only pieces of it he had left were the bone-eater's well which he had so carefully protected and the tree he was sitting on, the Goshinboku.

'Of course,' he sighed, mentally, Kagome's time had each, and only each. The precious trees he had become so attached to were gone, only to be replaced one day by perfectly lined foreign ones, meant only to please the eye. The world was indeed savage, taking away all the things important to him. So now all he had was the boy Jiko who, with the well, was safe.

Inuyasha took the Tetsusaiga from his waist, digging it into the ground in order to stand. His body wasn't cooperating very well, wanting to stay among the roots of the tree in order for him to regain his strength and clear his lungs of the ash he had inhaled. But no. . . he made a promise to the boy. And a promise was a promise, no matter how much he couldn't move.

Somehow, he managed to get to his feet, shaky though he was. How Kagome would kill him if she saw him now. Kagome . . .

As soon as his mind lost its focus, he felt himself begin to fall. The sensation of the still air brushing his cheeks made it seem that he was collapsing in an almost dream-like matter. His mind was playing tricks on him. He knew that, but . . . the black matter beneath him looked so soft . . . so inviting . . . Jiko could wait a little bit, couldn't he?

"Inuyasha! Inuyasha!"

That voice . . .

The hanyou managed to look over his shoulder as he fell, seeing _her_ running towards him.

It was Kagome . . . she had returned to him now . . . she was happy that he had saved both her son and her future . . . she was happy that he hadn't killed the one she loved . . . she would come back to him . . . she would help him . . .

The ground had never felt so inviting. Kagome would come . . . she would turn him over and take care of him . . . she would rest with him . . . they would be together . . .

For the first time since he and Kagome had went their separate ways, he let a genuine _smile_ play on his face . . .

* * *

The next morning, Kagome was rested enough that she could stand, and by the afternoon, she had regained enough energy that she could walk. With this strength came back her fluent speech, and she had quietly questioned her savior about the circumstances by which she had come to this place. 

The woman's name was Mikomi, and she was a hermit in the middle of the forest outside the village where Kagome had stayed. When she asked why, Kagome was told that this was due to the woman's loathing of the life and death humans were experiencing, and her seclusion was her way of rebelling against it.

"But you're so young," Kagome had said, not fully understanding the matter. "You should go out and raise a family of your own."

Mikomi's solemn face had worn the expression clear off Kagome's. "I have, and the demons have taken them all away from me."

But now, Kagome was by herself, helping her caretaker out by looking for food. Her bow and arrow had been abandoned long ago, after her first run-in with her 'mate,' and now she held only a small dagger as her protection.

It was, however, a beautiful dagger. The blade barely protruded past its worn leather grip, but it was so very sharp . . . and so very deadly . . .

Kagome paused, loosening her grip on the thing to stare at it. It was quite sullied . . . quite used . . . . It had obviously been the death of many a creature, and if used properly, could mean the death of her as well.

She smiled slightly, her eyes dying ever so slowly in the dim light filtering through the trees . . .

It would be so easy . . .

There were so many ways to kill oneself with a blade this sharp . . .

Slowly, ever so slowly, she turned the blade over in her hand, the point now facing her heart. Her shattered heart . . . her non-existent heart . . .

It would be so easy to cease its persistent beating . . .

She drew back her hand, readying herself for the final blow. This would be simple . . . this would be quick . . . she would die so soon after . . .

"Kagome . . ."

She froze. That voice was . . .

She was delusional . . . she had to be . . .

It just _couldn't_ be . . .

**

* * *

Oh no! It's a cliffy! **

**Now I'm debating an omake . . . hmm . . . this chapter was fairly short. So why not?**

**

* * *

**

Omake Theater No. 2

Hinote sat in his study, sipping some English tea. He had just finished his most recent and most popular role in Overobsessy's Running From the Past and was now ready for a well deserved rest.

Being cast as the bad guy of the story was not what he had in mind when he first wandered into the young authoress's mind. In fact, his previous incarnation had been one of Over's favorite bishis. This 'Atsumaru' was indeed a bad guy, but as most bad guys go in the way of Over, he wasn't all _that_ bad. But with this new role, he had no choice but to be evil. Why? Because he was going to be killed off.

Hinote growled inwardly. Why did Over always insist on killing him off?

"That's it!" he shouted, standing and spilling his tea on the Persian rug at his feet. "I'm filing a complaint about my abuse as Overobsessy's OC!"

Lahara cast him a wary glance, having come over recently for a visit with her original incarnation, Mos. "Hinote, you shouldn't complain about the way Over treats you. At least she's kind enough to kill off your character instead of forcing you to live with everything that's happened. Tell 'im what Over did to you, Mos."

The woman's piercing gaze shifted slowly to her descendant, dead as they always had been. "Lahara . . . I do not wish to share my story with anyone . . ."

The inu youkai's face softened. "I'm sorry. Did I bring back painful memories?"

"Then you tell me, Lahara. What the hell's so bad that Over did to this chick? I've never seen her in any fics before." Hinote made a mental note to murder his creator in her sleep for this torture.

"That's because she's Overobsessy's original brainchild that will remain hers alone." Lahara cast a sideways glance at her close friend, then decided to continue. "She forced her to be the cause of her mother's death. She made her father and her newborn brother ostracize her into insanity. She created a world where she couldn't be with her lover or her children. She destroyed her entire race. And as if that's not bad enough, she is forced to live for eternity knowing that her two sons killed each other!"

"Woah . . ." The fire youkai attempted to digest this properly, sitting back down in his chair. "What about you, then?"

"Don't pretend like you don't know what she's put me through. You were there to read it."

"Oh right . . ."

A knock on the door sent the peeved inu to open it, looking down at a familiar red-head. "Hiya, Jiko!"

"Jiko!" Hinote stood, holding out his arms for his son to leap into them. He never had liked the fact that Over had forced him to try to kill his own blood either, hanyou though he might be.

"Daddy!" The little fire hanyou hugged his father tight. "Guess what!"

"What?"

"I just went to see Overobsessy-sama, and she told me that she might make an alternate ending for our fic!"

"An alternate ending?" The old demon blinked. "For Running From the Past?"

"Yep!"

"Like what kind of alternate ending?"

"You'll see!" The kid poked his father's nose in a teasing fashion. "But, she says we all have to behave if we want it!"

'Behave?' Hinote sighed mentally. 'Well, there goes my plan to get fair and equal treatment . . .'

"And, Daddy?"

"Yes, Jiko?"

"There are some reviewers that want to see you."

**_TSUDUKU . . ._**

**

* * *

I had a dream once . . . in it I got more reviews . . . back when I was writing shout-outs . . . **

**And here's the way the voting works this time around:**

**This time you will be voting for which 'pairings' will exist in the end. _This does not exactly mean lovey dovey pairings, but at least really, really good friends, etc._**

**Inuyasha x Kagome  
****Hinote x Kagome **_(Not originally intended, but sparked interest when my friend brought it up)  
_**Tasuke x Jiko  
****Inuyasha x Jiko  
****Kagome x Jiko  
****Shippo x Jiko  
****Hinote x Jiko **_(Improbable? Yes. Impossible? No.)  
_**Kagome's Family x Jiko  
****Inuyasha x Tasuke**

**I ask that you vote for _THREE OR MORE_ pairings. Anyone voting for less won't have their votes confiscated, but instead I will add on the remaining votes to either completely abandoned options (as in this case, Inuyasha) or I will add them onto my own votes. Thank you.**

_A few of the votes for the last chapter weren't counted against them. Simply because, well, because._

**Now for the shout-outs that everyone misses so much:**

_Chapter 7 (Desire) Shout Outs:_

**The Light in the Darkness:** I'm really glad you liked it so much, and I'm sorry I didn't update as soon as I should have. Hopefully, you've liked these past few parts too. Thank you.

**maboroshi kaji1:** No. I was not trying to kill you.

**Demons-Heart: **I'm glad you thought it was so good. Now when I reread it, I even wonder myself sometimes where I was actually going . . .

**Mage of Swords:** You know something? That would be interesting for Inuyasha to get stuck in Jiko's body for awhile. That would make a good AU fic if you could find someone willing to write it. My friend is actually writing an AU one-shot off my story right now called "Unwanted Outing." It would be fun to check out after she posts.

**unheard screams:** That would be the embodiment of 'Desire.' She won't really be oh too important in the fic except as a plot device. Sometimes I wonder why I even stuck her in there . . .

**chibiNeko1920:** Jiko is five years old, but because of what he's been through, sometimes he acts older.

**AnimaiGurl:** Yes. Jiko is one of my own, beloved OCs.

**Moonflower:** Wow. My first flame.

**Thanks and apologies for confusion to:** Ookami Otome, animedorkette, ShadyLady06, KaNaGi, inu-kitsune-youkai, WrenchTHROWER, BlackandSilentFire, brigurl, Sanci, Tsuki no Akakage, sweet-girl8270, OniyuriGaaru, Amaya, ColorXMeXFake, luvinukagome, fallenangel7583, anny108, sesshoumaru's-hot-mate, twinkledontleburry, mitsukai-otome, Rockstar-groupie, Toya's Gurl, darkangel29, Beth, Drake Clawfang, Danakagome, Kagome-Vixen, Jade Summers, Zoderella, kasha, lilblondekid, inulover4391, greenJEMS, JulyFlame, BinkaWV, InuTime, and Miyuki-Baby

_Chapter 8 (Explanations) Thanks:_

**crizz  
Sanci  
Miyuki-Baby**

_Chapter 9 (Demon's Fire) Shout Outs:_

**Sanci:** Ya see, Inuyasha? You're not invincible.  
Inu: ...growls...  
Me: It's the truth, get used to it. **I'm** the authoress of **this** story!  
Inu: That doesn't mean I can't complain.  
Me: You and your complaining, Inu-boy. That won't change the fact that you got the-  
Inu: Just shut up . . .  
Me: What? You can't stand the fact that Hinote beat the shit out of you?  
Inu: Never! The results were tampered!  
Hinote: I'll beat the shit out of you anyday, wretch.  
Inu: ...growls...  
Me: Now calm down. We have other shout-outs to write, boys.

**Also thanks to:** Sweetest Pea, Mizukithepanda (200th reviewer!), Angel of hatered, Gwriter4Anime, lunabelle0, crayola-skies, cherrystraw, J. L. Faust, mseryel2, BinkaWV, Rikku-Tasuki, Inu Star Angel, and Miyuki-Baby

_Chapter 10 (Separation) Shout Outs:_

**darkfire can purehearts:** The story behind the Omake Theater is an interesting one. Because I had been asking everyone I could, I asked my mom which ending she preferred. She said that she didn't like any of them and proceeded to tell me that her favorite stories are the ones where the good guy doesn't have to sully his hands killing the bad guy. I proceeded to explain to her that Inuyasha would never let Hinote go, and there was a convenient laser for him to walk into. She then proceeded to tell me a story about Kagome thanking Hinote for giving her Jiko and then him being so stunned that he walked into a road to be hit by a semi. I simply couldn't leave that alone . . .

**Deadly Crimson:** See, I kinda made some promises in the beginning, and I feel those people wouldn't like it if I didn't give them some say -or at least some forewarning -before I did it.

**Lady-Sttar:** Your review made me laugh . . . so . . . hard. But if Hinote has an evil twin brother, does that mean that he's the good one?

**Sanci:** You're right. The plot really _is_ coming along. I could hardly believe it when I realized. I'm so sad . . .

**Also thanks to:** kagomes pup, reviewer, Sweetest Pea, mseryel2, Tajiya-Hatake, Miyuki-Baby, J.L. Faust, lady-joker, inulover4391, dragon's kitty, Linella, Rikku-Tasuki, and lilazninufreak.


	12. Chasing Your Heart

**Sorry ya'll about the long update time. I actually got most of this written only days after posting the last one, but push came to shove and I had to travel around the country what with my grandfather dying, my cousin like a niece being born, and having so much company that I must entertain. In repentance, I'm making this chapter long.**

**But actually, it occurred to me the other day just how close this fic is to being finished. ... counts plot points so far... Yep, definitely getting close. After this chappy, I think I'll close the polls and decide which ending I'm going to write.**

**Oh yes. And if you want the latest on happenings with me (a.k.a. when I won't be able to write or special things I want everyone to check out), go check out my profile.**

**Disclaimer: I own everything.**_ (Note: If you believe this disclaimer, it would probably be in your best interest to see a local physician about your mental health.)_

* * *

It was Sesshoumaru.

Of all the people Kagome had expected to come to try to stop her, Sesshoumaru had definitely been last, or at least close to last, on her list.

His cool amber eyes gently slid to the dagger in her hands, the blade glinting in the afternoon sun. "Where is Inuyasha?"

Sesshoumaru's trademark: a simple question with a not-so-simple answer. Kagome remained silent, quietly fastening her hold on her rage in order to do this.

"I doubt the half-breed would appreciate seeing you try to stab yourself."

"I don't give a damn about what Inuyasha would think." Kagome gripped the knife in both hands, readying herself to plunge it into her heart. "I don't give a damn about Inuyasha at all!"

"You speak as if you think I am a fool." Sesshoumaru let his eyes rise back to her own, tears now slipping from her bloodshot orbs.

She . . . just couldn't do it now. Sesshoumaru was wearing away at the little bit of resolve she had barely managed to gain. The knife clattered to the ground, the blade sinking into the earth's flesh instead of the miko's. She followed it, hands catching her weight as she let the tears muddy the dirt's wound.

"As little as I think of Inuyasha, he is not the type to allow himself to be killed so easily." He paused. "Besides, I doubt your child would appreciate being orphaned at such a young age."

Another Sesshoumaru trademark: he could assess any difficult situation with a single sniff.

"Jiko's dead . . ." Kagome closed her eyes, trying not to relive the pain she had felt when she discovered the ashen remains of her once home. "And _he_ is going after Inuyasha now too . . ."

"The fire youkai who took advantage of you, I assume?" Sesshoumaru gave her pathetic figure an uninterested look. "No demon that is so low as to do such a thing would be able to defeat my father's blood."

"Quit acting like you know exactly what's going on, Sesshoumaru!" The miko's sadness morphed itself into trained rage, her eyes turning to glare daggers at her savior. "You can't possibly understand! You don't even have any reason to be here now!"

"I simply came to determine the source of the wretched smell that has descended over Musashi. It was merely chance that brought me to stop you from killing yourself." Sesshoumaru looked away into the trees at where the village had once stood upon the hill. "When you see the half-breed again, you should tell him not to forget this."

Kagome stood, angry now and not afraid to show it, even to the mighty daiyoukai. "I'm never going to see Inuyasha again! Don't you understand?"

Amber eyes were suddenly back on her, evaporating her anger with their ever mysterious complexity. "Then do not see him again and kill yourself. It is not as though he will actually care, now will he?"

Kagome felt an unintended sigh slip through her lips, her anger evaporating again. Inuyasha . . . _would_ care. Even if he never knew it directly . . . he would feel that she had left the world forever . . .

Sesshoumaru, seeing that she had no more to say, turned, walking off in an attempt to vanish as quickly as he had appeared.

"Sesshoumaru, wait."

The daiyoukai paused, his body still away from her.

"Thank you . . ."

A soft, uncaring sound that was so characteristic of Sesshoumaru drifted back to her ears as he finally took his leave, perhaps never to be seen by the miko for another few years.

'Sometimes . . .' Kagome smiled softly at the thought, picking up the dagger and wiping the tears from her cheeks. 'He really does act like Inuyasha's brother . . .'

* * *

Jiko stared up at the ceiling of what was once his mother's room, trying to fully take in all he had just heard. His mother had come from 500 years in the future and fallen in love with Inuyasha . . . Then, six years ago, – close to the time when he was born, the boy noted – she had vanished completely from this time.

'And Mommy said that I'm not Inuyasha's son, so . . .' The hanyou raised his hand to stare at it, as if attempting to assess just by that who his father was. 'Who could it possibly be then . . .?'

"Jiko-chan, may I come in?"

Said child sat up, staring at the door which he recognized his new grandmother stood behind. "Hai, baa-san."

The woman slowly opened the door, a smile on her face at how quickly he had picked up the nickname for her. She had always wanted to hear it before Kagome had left, and had always hoped that when her daughter returned, she would carry armloads of precious children all fathered by Inuyasha.

Never in six years had she imagined _this_ being what came out of the well. A lone boy with an unknown father that didn't even know she existed had never been her ideal, but . . .

She sighed mentally, stepping into the room with a tray of sweets. He was still her grandchild.

"Would you like something?"

The hanyou leapt off the bed and hurried over to the much older woman, staring at the foreign sweets on the tray before choosing the most outrageous one, hoping to see what exactly this world had to offer in terms of food.

"Thank you." The boy quickly began nibbling on a corner of the pastry, some of the chocolate frosting finding itself on his nose.

"Tell me something, Jiko-chan." The grandmother set down the tray on a lamp stand in hopes that she wouldn't have another episode like she had had in the kitchen when Jiko had first arrived. "Do you intend to go back to the other world?"

Understandably, Jiko suddenly lost his appetite, taking the sweet from his mouth. "Yes, I do."

His ancestor sighed. "I suppose it can't be helped, but I do have a favor I need to ask of you."

Jiko blinked as she reached into the pocket of her apron and pulled out a small . . . _something_. She took the young boy's hands and closed them around the object, kneeling so she could look into his beautifully red eyes.

"Please . . . I beg you . . . give this to Kagome when you see her again . . ."

The hanyou opened his hands to stare at what she had given him. It was a small, shiny piece of thick paper with a painting drawn on it in such detail that it was as if the four there were real. He stared at the girl standing next to his grandmother, her hands on Souta's shoulders. "Is this . . ." He pointed. "Mommy?"

The woman nodded. "Yes. I want her to have it so that she won't forget about us."

"I will, baa-san" Jiko nodded, then went back to his staring. "But Mommy looks _so_ different here . . . are you sure that's her?"

"I'm positive, Jiko-chan." She smiled at him, no longer knowing if she'd be able to send her precious grandson back into the world that had taken her daughter away.

* * *

Inuyasha woke up to the feel of something wet on his cheek, and only after he had gotten over the initial shock of waking up suddenly did he realize it was a tongue.

Sure he had expected Kagome to be rather affectionate after their long parting, but licking?

He groaned inwardly, guessing that perhaps it would be best to actually see who it was licking him before he made any assumptions. He turned his head stiffly to the side, opening his amber eyes only to meet the innocent brown of one of the village dogs.

Inuyasha growled, and the pup quickly found its way out the door.

"Nice to see you're awake."

Two fluffy white triangles twitched at the familiar voice. Was that . . .?

A pale face came into his view, loose priestess clothes covering the small frame of Tasuke. How Inuyasha wished that she didn't look so much like his beloved Kagome . . .

His sudden drop in countenance caused the young girl to lose her smile as she scooted closer to him, the light filtering through the door illuminating her hair and eyes, so much like the miko that once cared for him like this . . .

"Inuyasha, what is it?"

The hanyou shifted again, facing away from her to avoid seeing anything more to remind him of the woman he loved. 'Even if she does love me, there's no way she'll come see me again after the way I've treated her. The only reason she'd come by here would be to find Jiko . . .'

Inuyasha sat up, his mind suddenly focused on the boy. He was still in the well and was most likely starving by now.

"Inuyasha, lie down before you hurt yourself." The surprisingly strong five-year-old pressed on his shoulders, attempting to push him back down onto his futon.

"J-Jiko . . ." The hanyou closed an eye as his initial shock at forgetting the boy wore off and he was left with only the blazing pain of his head injury from that . . . what was his name again? The harder he tried to think about it, the more blurred the room became, the colors swirling together and Tasuke looking more _clearly_ like Kagome by the second.

"What about Jiko?" Tasuke took her hands from Inuyasha's shoulders, looking rather worried now that the subject of her new hanyou friend was brought up. "The whole village has been looking for him since the fire stopped and no one has been able to find him."

The desperation in her voice gave Inuyasha an even greater need to get to the well to save Jiko. _He_ was the one that promised he'd go to get the boy, and so _he_ was the one that would get him. The hanyou dug his claws into the wood beside his resting place, forcing his body to turn so that he was on his knees. His lungs, protesting, began forcing air out of their owner's weak body in sickening coughs, a blood and ash mixture soon dripping from his mouth.

"Inuyasha!" Tasuke, knowing she couldn't stop the much stronger hanyou, ran to the door. "Lady Kaede! Lady Kaede! Inuyasha's trying to get up!"

Almost instantly it seemed, not only was Kaede there, but Sango and Miroku as well, their younger child nestled comfortably in a makeshift sling on his mother's back.

The hanyou sloppily wiped off his mouth with the back of his hand, bringing one knee underneath him and standing, the repulsive liquid now oozing down his fingers to drip lazily into the growing puddle on the floor.

"Inuyasha, sit down," Kaede demanded, walking into the hut and gesturing for the couple that had come in behind her to help her seat the disobedient hanyou.

Sango, having given up her Hiraikotsu for her child at the moment, decided it would be best for her to simply steady the swaying demon while her husband did the actual forcing. Inuyasha, of course, resisted, and being one of pride, he hid the coughs that were screaming to escape him, the ashen crimson bubbling from his stained lips as he finally seated himself.

"Do ye intend to kill yerself, Inuyasha? Ye should be happy with living, so close ye were to losing it in that blaze." The wizened miko quickly took a healing liquid from the corner, bringing it over to the dog and holding it to his lips. The instant he opened his mouth to take it, the remainder of the blood and ash escaped him, dribbling down his chin.

Tasuke put off a repulsed look, turning her gaze up at her mother before making the wise decision to hide behind her legs just as Inuyasha drank the liquid and another fit began, the pasty antidote mixed in with the hanyou's blood, making a sick puce color.

Miroku's lip curled slightly, wondering why his friend would so desperately want to leave in such a condition. "Inuyasha, where is Jiko?"

The inu finally settled himself back on the futon, realizing that he wouldn't be able to do much in this condition, especially when the others could so easily keep him down. "He followed me into the forest after I ran inside to protect the well, so naturally . . ."

"You pushed him inside it?" Sango gave her husband a look, which he returned.

"Inuyasha . . . we've checked in the well . . . Jiko's not there . . ."

"What!" Inuyasha attempted to stand again, the sudden movement making the world turn very suddenly on its side.

"It was the first place we looked," Miroku continued. "You seemed so adamant in your pursuit to protect it that naturally we checked there first."

"Damnit . . ." The hanyou hissed, falling back. "He must've gone through. I didn't think it would work for him."

"Gone . . . through?" Tasuke peeked out from behind her mother's legs, curious now as all five-year-olds were. She looked up at Sango. "What does he mean?"

"Tasuke." The former taijiya gazed down at her daughter, not knowing how to explain it and not wanting to in front of everyone. She gave her husband a look, then took Tasuke's hand. "Come on. Let's go home."

The girl, about to protest, decided to give in when Inuyasha put off another loud cough, following her mother out of the village miko's house.

"So what do ye intend to do, Inuyasha?" Kaede sat down beside the fire pit, setting her hands on her knees and letting out a deep sigh. "Ye _are_, after all, the only one who can pass through the well."

"Go after him, of course!" the dog barked, growling at his inability to stand or even move without losing his balance.

"But how _could_ the little one pass through? He has no ties of fate binding him to that era." Miroku put a hand to his chin thoughtfully. "It makes no sense."

"Haven't you figured it out yet, you dumb monk?" Inuyasha wiped a fresh trail of blood from his lips, his amber eyes giving his friend a very serious look. "That boy is Kagome's son."

* * *

"Mikomi, I'd like to thank you for your hospitality." Kagome bowed deeply, hands folded properly in front of her. "If there is anything else I can do for you, I would be honored to-"

"Oh, dear, it was nothing." The older woman put a hand on the miko's shoulder, encouraging her to stop bowing. "The little chores you helped me with today were enough repayment, believe me."

Kagome gave her a small smile, straightening. "If you say so."

"I'm just glad that you're alright now. If you ever come by here again, don't hesitate to visit me." Mikomi returned her smile, taking her hands back. "You will always find a place here. You _and_ Inuyasha."

The miko almost frowned, but remembered that it would indeed be hard to kill Inuyasha. There was still hope for him, and she wouldn't allow herself to abandon him again. "I'll remember that, Mikomi. When I find him again, I will most definitely come back to see you."

"Thank you, dear. And I'll see you then."

Kagome turned, waving over her shoulder before starting her trek to find the hanyou who now meant everything to her.

* * *

Hinote never had been the type to sit around casually when his prey was so obviously close to him. He never had been the type to allow any child of his that happened to possess the blood of a human go. Nor had he ever allowed a woman to survive him before that miko.

He growled openly, slapping a hand to his face, remembering all the mistakes he had made thus far.

'I never should've let that woman live. If only I wasn't in such a damn hurry that day.' He ran his hand down his face, eyes focusing up on the sky as he remembered.

_Flashback_

_He had just finished his business with her, standing and gazing down at his handiwork. Her pathetic frame was curled in on itself, whimpering and crying as she attempted to hide her pale skin from his gaze._

_Hinote smirked, always enjoying the last moments of life left in these women who had the _privilege_ of meeting him. The fear in their scents made all of it worth it, their muffled screams at the height of passion the greatest reward._

"_Now for the final practice." He drew his sword, taking his time to line up his strike. He wasn't the type to kill his women painfully; a quick slash was all that was required to execute them._

_The girl opened her eyes suddenly, tears still pouring from them. They found their way to the blade in his hand, and she instantly recoiled, sitting up and scooting to the base of a nearby tree._

"_Afraid of death even now, are you?" Hinote lowered his blade, taking a few steps towards her. "Even though you can never look at anyone you love the same again?"_

_She squeaked, dragging herself away from him, not wanting to stand and expose anymore of herself. "G-Get away from me!"_

_The hellfire demon let out an annoyed sigh. "And if I don't, what will you do?" He swung his sword casually over his shoulder, taking slow steps towards her._

_The girl, still attempting to cover herself, pulled herself further away, reminding Hinote so much of a wounded mouse trying to escape a cat._

"_I wanted to make it painless, but . . ." He continued his slow pace after her, patting his katana threateningly on his shoulder. "If you insist on running away."_

_It was then the girl stood, no longer minding her tattered skirt. She knew she had to get away now. Get away or die. And so she ran._

_Hinote sighed once again to himself. He never really did appreciate the chase following these matters. He had exhausted himself on this girl, and he had important business elsewhere to attend to._

"_Damnit to hell. I just don't care." He sheathed his sword, staring in the direction she had run. "I'll let you live for now, little miko."_

_End Flashback_

Hinote stood from his spot next to a well, stretching and casually staring back down at the thing. It had been a great curiosity to him when he discovered this clearly wooden well still in perfect condition after his recent burning of the entire surrounding forest.

He had only discovered this well today too. Perhaps someone had erected it after he had left to survey the rest of his damage? Surely if it had actually survived the fire it would be covered in ash.

The demon growled, not liking to be outsmarted by some damn humans. How dare they think that they were so clever?

Though it made no sense . . .

Hinote stared again at the thing, seeing the outlines of something on its surface. No, this had survived the fire. Something or someone had made sure of its safety by covering it. With what? The fire demon had no idea, nor did he care.

He turned, sick of this feeling of stupidity this damn well had caused him. If he had felt more malicious, he would burn the damn thing to show the humans that nothing could survive his hellfire.

'Maybe another time,' he thought, walking towards the black horizon to begin his search anew.

* * *

Inuyasha, having finally calmed his lungs and taken enough medicine to make any human woozy, hobbled uncertainly towards the well, Miroku and Kaede in toe. His strength had returned just enough that they would allow him this journey into the future, and he wasn't about to cause them to lose faith in him by falling to the ground to breathe.

'Jiko's counting on you . . . don't forget that . . .' The dog took a deep breath as his claws rested uneasily on the old wood of the well, curling over its edge. He hadn't gone through the well in over six years, and a feeling of dread overcame him at the thought of facing Kagome's family.

"Are you sure about this, Inuyasha?" Miroku put a hand on his back, calming the dog somewhat. "I'm sure Jiko is safe over there in Kagome's time."

"I made a promise, damnit." Inuyasha brought his foot up between his hands, ready for the leap into the well. "That boy's counting on me."

"I would advise ye to make this visit short, Inuyasha. The villagers believe the blaze was the work of a demon and would feel much safer if ye were near to protect them."

"It was the work of a youkai . . ." The dog paused, staring down into the dark depths of the portal to the future, remembering the familiar red hair and the fiery eyes, the familiar frame of his face and the smirk that just seemed so wrong. "I ran into him . . . he was looking for Jiko . . ."

"What?" Miroku hid most of his shock, gazing fixedly at his friend.

Inuyasha lifted his other foot up so he was now standing on the well's edge, trying to keep his balance enough to stay there, picturing his beloved Kagome and that . . . _creature_ together. "He is . . . Jiko's father . . ." He paused for a moment, wondering if they were going to say anything, silently hoping they would try to sooth his aching heart. But no, there was nothing.

He took in a deep breath, held it, feeling his heart pound against his chest at the dense silence and the prospect of facing Kagome's mother. Miroku's mouth opened, and unable to take any sound, he took the plunge, leaping into the well.

* * *

Kagome could feel her heart begin to flutter as she looked out over a steep hill, the horse she had been given from a village she passed through grazing noisily behind her. She had stayed on the main roads so far, hoping to avoid any unwanted encounters with demons, and she could now see her path twisting and winding its way over to a tall mountain, on the other side of which she knew was Inuyasha's forest and Kaede's village.

Her mind was swirling with thoughts of what she should do and say, who would be there and how they would react. Kaede would most likely be the first to come and see her, if she was still alive. The old woman would probably recognize her right away, taking her into her home and offering her stew, calling any of the villagers that might know her.

Miroku and Sango might even still be in the village too. Kagome's heart skipped a beat, thinking of her friends and the family they would undoubtedly have created. The thought stung her a bit, the mere idea of them cradling their children while her own son had been killed stabbing her heart yet again. Perhaps if she was lucky, one of them would become attached to her and it would be like she had Jiko back . . .

Or perhaps . . .

Her thoughts now traveled to the hanyou that she simply _knew_ would be there, strong, handsome, and most likely more than happy to see her and know that she loved him. If they could return to what they once had . . .

Kagome shook her head. What was she thinking? Inuyasha might think that she hated him, but the moment he found out that she had lost herself to that fire demon . . .

Tears pricked at her eyes. What the hell was she doing here . . .?

'To tell Inuyasha that you love him. Isn't that the only thing that matters?' a small voice in head told her, forcing her to look up again at the mountain. 'You need to tell him before you can move on, or else you'll be trapped in this misery forever.'

Kagome bit her lip, taking a deep breath. Even if it did mean that her past would be discovered, she just needed him to know . . . or she would never be able to move on . . .

* * *

**And there you have it, my friends. Of course, now I have a very special omake theatre for you:

* * *

**

_Omake Theatre No. 3_

Hinote pulled up his e-mail, clicking around on the laptop that Overobsessy had lent him. He had a ton of spam, like usual, advertising free trials of a special human repellant and where to find the next big massacre. He junked them without even looking at them, seeing now that he had no other e-mail.

"Just great," he muttered to himself, exiting out and pulling up MSN messenger. "I have less popularity than Shikaki did, and I'm in a more popular story!"

To his surprise, instead of signing in as him, it signed in as his master, MSN Today popping up to reveal the new e-mail messages she had. There were 52.

Hinote's eye twitched as he opened up her inbox, seeing a long list of new reviews for the story. He opened one after the other, seeing the reviewers chase him and beat him and tell Over that he was the only one that was allowed to die.

He started scrolling through the rest of her e-mail, hunting for someone screaming the same thing about Inuyasha or maybe even Kagome. Nope. Nothing.

There were, however, a few already-replied-to e-mails from fans telling her their own takes on the story. Some of them were actually rather flattering, things like "Hinote really doesn't have to die" and "as long as he doesn't bother them again" written on the page.

His eyes glistened. Some people actually liked him!

"Eh hem."

Hinote shot up and wheeled around, seeing one of Over's newer OCs standing behind him. "You didn't see anything!"

"I saw plenty." Nagirah put her hands on her hips, swishing her skirt a bit as she bent over to look him in the eyes. "Just wait until Master hears about this."

The fire youkai scrambled for some excuse to get her off the topic. "Hey look! Over's guy friend is back from Florida!"

Nagirah's eyes instantly lit up, turning and running from the room, desperate for another encounter with her lover, a creation of said boy's mind.

Hinote let out a sigh of relief, turning back around and looking down at the now fully shown desktop. There were several new icons on it, ten reading "Testing" some number and another two reading "Final" and "I love you." He highlighted them all, bringing them up in Windows Media Player.

The first three tests were boring, just simple tests of some camera, but then they became a little more than just blackmail . . .

Hinote burst out laughing several times as the videos progressed, his master being proved a spaz, a klutz, and insane all at once. Finally, "Testing 9" came up, and he sat in his swivel chair with a goofy smile on his face, watching her mess up her fingers for the umpteenth time, then show off a ton of absurd, no wait, she meant to say obscene, gestures. Nearing the end, Over grabbed the camera's nose, showing it off and laughing, evilly if you will, then finally settled back in her chair to wait for the laughter to die down.

Yes, his master was evil. And she definitely needed a hobby . . .

* * *

**...sweatdrop... Yes, I know that was somewhat random, and I apologize for the inside joke that was Nagirah. I just couldn't control myself.**

**Now as for the final poll (I'm closing them the instant I put up the next chapter), it will be done differently this time. All I ask of you is that you tell me how you think this story should end (if nothing else, to amuse the authoress and make her feel good), as well as the answer to one or all of the following things:**

**Epilogue or no epilogue? **(I'm personally rooting for the epilogue unless I make a great ending.)

**Whoever's left ends up in the past or present? **(Currently, I'm making it past.)

**Alternate ending? **(My friend's pulling for it, but I'm not sure.)

**That's about all I can think of that I'd be willing to shift my view on right now, and I'm pretty sure I know what I'm going to do with the story, but I'd like my reader's opinion, because, well, you guys are the world to me right now. ...big, dashing authoress smile...**

**Kudos to the person who comes up with what I think is the best ending (even though I probably won't use it, but you never know)!

* * *

**

**Now for shout-outs:**

**darkfire can purehearts: **...sticks out tongue... Yep. I outdid myself if I say so myself. Sorry it took so long for me to update. Summer and family issues, you know.

**Linella: **Well, I think you know now. ...snickers... Bet you didn't think it'd be Sesshoumaru, did you?

**Ryo-Truesdale: **...beams... Thanks for the awesome review! I've never felt so good before! And I think people voted for the tragic ending because, well, I suppose they just like seeing a lot of angst. I dunno. But anyway, thanks for the magnificent review!

**Lady-Sttar: **Hmm . . . that would make for an interesting back story. You mind writing it up for me? ...grins... I'll be your first reviewer and advertise it for the world to see!

**dragon's kitty: **Exactly. And it's not as if he can control that he was the product of a rape either, huh? Poor Jiko . . . I don't want him to find out . . .

**Miyuki-Baby: **Well I hope this chapter cleared up your confusion. The two were just hallucinating that the other was near them because their brains are so stuck on each other.

**Kurinji-sama: **...sweatdrop... Sorry I took so long to update. I hope you can forgive me with this chapter. ...heart...

**Also Thanks To: **Taijiya Hatake Uchiha, upsidedown, Kagome-chan88, mseryel2, Deadly Crimson, Asuka-Angel-21, whimsy007, lynniel1-23, Savitri Marie, OniyuriGaaru, Inume-blue, inuyashafanficfan, Duzellluver, and Alexa


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